The final tender for the continuation of works at Cospicua is currently being evaluated by the Contracts Department and is expected to be issued next week, the Infrastructure Ministry said.

It said that all tenders issued are expected to be awarded in the coming weeks for work on the project, which had been abandoned by the original contractor who failed to honour his obligations, to continue.

The ministry said that, in the meantime, the government was taking all the necessary steps to mitigate the public’s inconvenience.

The Cospicua council was being kept continuously informed of developments and knew about all the problems that had come up.

However, the government was committed to have the project concluded by the end of July.

Works, the ministry said, were not expected to start before December 8 so as not to disrupt feast celebrations.

The ministry issued its statement following a protest this morning, which saw a good number of residents protest about the neglected state of their city.

Led by mayor Joe Scerri, the protest started with a tour for journalists in a fun train, to show them individual sites which had been left neglected.

These included a shattered pavement around the sports complex, gardens in a state of disrepair, an area described as ‘no man’s land’ on St Paul’s Bastion and the Cospicua Rangers Football Club, which was used by children and which the council had been asking for it to be repaired since 2007.

The tour ended near Dock 1, where water had seeped in the Regatta Bar and Restaurant damaging equipment because of the works.

Regatta Club president Stephen Paris said sewage had also flooded into the club this week because of the works.

Mr Scerri said that the council had organised the protest because it was fed up of being blamed for things which were the central government’s responsibility.

The next protest, he said, would be in front of Castille.