Mayor John Buttigieg.

A cable car will be carrying passengers from Mellieħa centre to Għadira Bay within four years, if the local council brings its proposal to fruition.

However, plans have yet to be commissioned and mayor John Buttigieg said he did not know how much it would cost to build or where the stations would be.

“Construction will start when we have all the plans ready and the funds are available. We intend to do it in these four years,” Mr Buttigieg said, referring to his length of term in office before the next election.

The cable car was a collective pre-electoral pledge from the Labour candidates in the coastal village.

People voted for us and they know what we wrote about a cable car

Labour wrested back control of Mellieħa council from the Nationalists at the March 9 election. It now has a 5-4 majority.

Asked if the proposal was popular with villagers, Mr Buttigieg said: “We will have to conduct a public consultation. But people voted for us and they know what we wrote about a cable car. The feedback I’m getting is positive.”

The mayor said the council was undertaking preliminary studies for the construction of the cable car and was looking to tap into EU or central government funds to help finance it.

Għadira Bay is the largest sandy beach in Malta and the cable car could prove popular with both tourists and locals, the mayor pointed out.

“There is a problem with traffic in the village centre and it is not easy to walk to the beach from there,” Mr Buttigieg said.

In the most recent edition of The Sunday Times of Malta, the mayor complained that over half of the council’s €1 million annual budget had been spent by the previous incumbent in the first two months of the year.

He added that the council will start focusing on its pre-electoral pledges, including the cable car, from next year.

pcooke@timesofmalta.com