Sarria Street, in Floriana is one of a kind. It is flanked by historical monumental buildings throughout. Some of these include Sarria church (1585), designed by Mattia Preti, the Wignacourt Tower (1615), the Mall Gardens (1656), the Argotti Gardens (1741), St Publius parish church (1733), the Granaries and the Methodist church – Robert Sammut Hall (1883).

The street is the main thoroughfare for buses going into Valletta and, in fact, there is a bus lane throughout the whole of its length. Lately, however, this bus lane has been serving as a parking space for coaches all day long. This despite the double yellow lines.

Apart from these coaches being parked illegally, which is sufficient grounds for them not to be there in the first place, in my opinion they also ruin the otherwise lush green ambience created by the surrounding trees and are an eyesore to the hundreds of tourists that pass by daily to enjoy the heritage sites. They create an industrial-area atmosphere, something that is totally incompatible with the monuments mentioned above and with the Floriana town core, within which these monuments stand.

I think Floriana and its heritage deserve much better treatment. Is this the way we promote our heritage by converting it into a parking area for coaches? Is this Valletta 2018? Is everyone in Floriana complacent?

I look forward to learn more about this from Transport Malta, the Floriana local council and the V18 Foundation. I would also like to learn why our wardens are unusually passive when it comes to issuing parking tickets to these coaches even though they are parked illegally for a whole day, every day.