Strategies aimed at addressing transport issues are clearly not a priority for this government. The only finalised strategy undertaken under the watch of Transport Minister Joe Mizzi relates to the Electromobility Action Plan launched in November 2013. This plan was in fact preceded by a National Strategy for Electromobility which had been published in 2012 by a Nationalist government. I will leave it up to readers to determine whether Mizzi’s action plan was an exercise in plagiarism.
In April 2014, the minister launched a public consultation on the National Road Safety Strategy covering the years 2014 to 2024. The Transport Malta website still invites the public to submit feedback, even though the consultation closed in May 2014.
Since the strategy was intended for the decade commencing in 2014, presumably it was supposed to be finalised in 2014, but close to two years later, there is no indication that the strategy is in force. One of the areas the strategy is meant to address is VRT testing. There is clearly widespread abuse in this area, judging from the belching clouds of black fumes, particularly from some of the private bus operators. This strategy, therefore, has important environmental and health implications, not to mention vital measures concerning the safety of drivers.
There are no roads passing through Sliema that feature in the arterial and distributor road network
There is then the National Transport Strategy and Transport Master Plan, still in draft form. In an entry on the Transport Malta website dating back to 2013, we read that Transport Malta was requested by the Labour government to develop the National Transport Strategy and Master Plan. Three years on and for this crucial policy area we have still not been presented with a strategy.
Eight months ago, in reply to a parliamentary question by Clyde Puli, Mizzi solemnly declared that this will be a ‘holistic’ plan. Cliches apart, the plan still has to see the light of day.
The Transport Malta website also indicates that a national transport model will be constructed. Could the minister take a break from press conferences on the National Flood Relief Project or fortifications restoration – all projects devised under the previous administration – and inform the public as to the progress on this model?
The model is intended to replace the Structure Plan (1992), which we are told is now obsolete, and here lies the major confusion.
The Structure Plan has been replaced by Mepa’s Strategic Plan for Environment and Development (SPED). However, SPED makes no reference to the road network as was done in the Structure Plan and later in the local plans.
Transport Malta is responsible for the arterial and distributor road network, as classified by Mepa in 1992 and as established in the National Structure Plan, while local councils are responsible for the maintenance of local roads. If SPED has superseded the previous plans and if there is no mention of the road network in SPED, there seems to be no valid policy determining Malta’s road network, or at best it is the ‘obsolete’ Structure Plan.
In October 2015, I attended a consultation session hosted by Meusac titled Towards an EU Urban Development Agenda.
I raised the fact that there are no roads passing through Sliema that feature in the arterial and distributor road network in the Structure Plan. Tower Road, Qui-si-Sana seafront, the Strand and Manwel Dimech Street are not defined as arterial and distributor.
By way of comparison, Cospicua has nine roads and Attard has six roads which are considered arterial. Not a single road in Sliema is the responsibility of central government to resurface or – as would be necessary in the case of Manwel Dimech Street and others – to reconstruct.
This warped delineation of roads results in the Sliema council being expected to cover all works related to the entire road network in Sliema.
The council’s annual budget for the maintenance of roads is €75,000. Unless this anomaly is addressed, the bumpy ride across Sliema’s roads will persist.
Mepa CEO Johann Buttigieg and manager Joseph Gauci delivered presentations at the well-attended Meusac meeting.
As attested by minute 6.1 of the report on this meeting, both speakers said that a revision of the categorisation of streets needs to be done. Could they provide us with an update?
Finalising transport policies is taking a painfully long time. Not a single new policy in this field was concluded by Mr Mzzi.
Road policy needs to be given the priority required, and it is high time to deliver, rather than engage in public relations posturing of projects devised by the former PN government.
Paul Radmilli is a Sliema local councillor