The Mellieħa Bypass is happening, which, hopefully, will better serve the enhanced appeal and tourist/visitor numbers to the north of the island and Gozo.

We recently saw the significant investment and expansion of the Seabank Hotel, which should increase the number of visitors from the south of the island.

Road improvements beyond Mellieħa Bay to Armier again make this area more appealing.

I am not criticising these initiatives as this is what we need. However, we seem to be missing a vital link in the traffic chain, that is, how does the traffic get to here?

Obviously, Manikata is a favourite ‘rat run’. The little roads in this village with one part-time grocer and a church were not designed to cope with all this.

Clearly, the minister responsible as well as the local council do not seem to be willing to do anything about this deplorable state of affairs.

Just look at the terrible state of some walls flanking the main road, which collapsed over a year ago, linking Manikata to Golden Bay to realise that no one really cares.

This situation is diabolical, to say the least, it is dangerous and it has a significant negative impact on the lives of Manikata residents.

It is high time that a bypass is constructed on the Xemxija side of Manikata just beyond Richard England’s big round church that many know Manikata for.

Very soon it will be known for traffic accident statistics when the first child gets run over by the unacceptable volume of traffic we are having to bear passing at high speed and frequency through the centre of the village.