There are times when one feels that public service is a dead letter and that when one gets involved with a government department it really is the luck of the draw. You may be lucky and find that rare helpful individual who restores your faith in humankind. But most times, after one has been greeted by a yesssss that sounds more like a threat from a king cobra, one finds Mr or Mrs or Ms Stonewall who is definitely going to either put you off pursuing the matter further or brush you off to the most basilisk-like colleague available.

... there should be a split of responsibilities between St Julians and Paceville- Kenneth Zammit Tabona

And that is when you have the nerve to actually go to the department physically. On the phone, despite this much vaunted customer care with numbers starting with 800 plastered all over invoices, statements and letters, the service is abysmal. The worst culprit to date in my book is the St Julians local council.

The latest incident took place three weeks ago when, without so much as by your leave, a couple of workers started to dig up the cobbled pavement in Lapsi Street. I ran downstairs to see what was going on and found a couple of workers – neither of whom were Maltese, by the way – neatly piling cobbles at the top of the street. I asked them why they were doing this and they replied that they had to pass a new Go Mobile wire! Ergo an entire perfectly good pavement was destroyed in a matter of minutes.

I asked them how long it was going to take and they said a couple of days. Then I asked whether they would be putting back the cobbles that they were stacking so neatly and they said that these were going to be replaced with concrete. Feeling rather like Victor Meldrew on a bad day, I telephoned the council and was told that the council hadn’t a clue what was going on and the very rude man, who bad luck would have it always seems to answer the phone whenever I ring the council up, gave me the mobile number of the architect who was supposed to be seeing to the job, which I do not think he was ethically entitled to do. But, anyway, moving swiftly on, after the architect, a former council member who is now an MP and various government entities were all notified by me, I did eventually get a message that the mayor was away from the island and that he would surely be contacting me during the following week when he got back. I left my mobile number with the council. Did you phone me? No; neither did he.

So here we are three full weeks later with Lapsi Street still looking like a bomb site and not a word from this blessed council of ours. It seems as if they really do not give a tinker ’s about what goes on in this neck of the woods. All one needs to do is to look at the black spaghetti wires wrapped haphazardly around ancient defunct electricity poles at the section of the street near the old parish church to see the extent of the council’s neglect.

When I moved into St Julians two decades ago these poles were already an eyesore. I have been complaining about them for the last 15 years. The windstorm that we had a couple of months ago loosened the wires even more and now I have a thick telephone wire flapping loosely across the top of my window.

Why are we being treated like this? I seriously am of the opinion that there should be a split of responsibilities between St Julians and Paceville. Too much of Paceville seems to be on the march towards what once was sleepy pleasant and residential St Julians. We residents want to keep it that way at all costs, so we feel that it is high time that St Julians have a new council while Paceville retains the present St Julians one, which has done so much for Paceville and nothing for us.

We cannot allow the mayhem that is Paceville to overflow across the valley and destroy our lives as it has destroyed those of the hapless Paceville residents. The council’s attitude to the recent protests about the threatened developments in the Spi-nola area of St Julians was, to say the least, ambivalent. With at least 10 major developments that I know of, which, should they be sanctioned by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, will destroy our lives forever for reasons that are patently obvious, St Julians residents feel under siege.

When you have a council that ignores the very legitimate complaints of its constituents the situation becomes untenable and one cannot help wondering whether there are ulterior motives behind the council’s stands.

I do hope that this peculiar behaviour is particular to the St Julians council alone and that we are the exception and not the rule. Should this attitude be endemic, then boy oh boy are we in trouble!