I thank Victor Battistino (The Sunday Times, November 27) for the way he justifies Transport Malta’s actions in response to my editorial in the Motoring Supplement of October 23.

I believe Mr Battistino’s customers, that is, all taxpayers, would have been better served had he chosen to attack the argument I put forward rather than the person.

Mr Battistino claims I was wrong and irresponsible in my assumptions yet he does not deny that the road works I wrote about did, in fact, start on the same day most schools opened their doors and that the repairs to the barriers took a long time to start.

The only satisfaction he gives to his customers for such bad timing and delays was to blame “the rigorous procurement procedures the timing of which (Transport Malta) have no control over”, and that “questions in Parliament have also been answered on this issue”.

According to Transport Malta’s website, its Roads and Infrastructure Directorate “co-ordinates the construction, reconstruction and maintenance of roads, the management of traffic and the promotion of traffic safety”.

Based on this I believe that the thousands of frustrated road users deserve a better explanation.

Furthermore, I would like to apologise to all readers for “erroneously” referring to the bridge’s movement joints as water culverts, as rightly pointed out by Mr Battistino.

The issue still remains that these movement joints are badly in need of repair and Mr Battistino has assured all that these will be repaired once work on the barriers is completed.

May I point out that work on the barriers has been completed for some time now and still there is no sign of the road being resurfaced or the movement joints being repaired.

Or should we blame bureaucratic procedures yet again?