Taxpayers’ money is being spent in a drive to encourage local councils to hold village activities that will, at the end of the day, benefit taxpayers themselves but also visitors to the country.
In the latest such scheme, announced last summer, the government forked out €250,000 and Local Government Parliamentary Secretary Chris Said laid stress on quality of the events organised.
The New Year’s Eve celebrations held in Valletta and Floriana proved popular and successful, bar a problem with regard to public transport. Yet, this success had soon to be tarnished by a most unnecessary squabble involving the two neighbouring local councils.
True, the two localities are known to be keen rivals, notably in football, and their inhabitants do not hold each other very dearly. But that this should be exacerbated by the outbursts of the two local councils and mayors, and publicly, to boot, is unacceptable. Dr Said should interfere and fall on them like a ton of bricks, unless that has already happened behind closed doors.
Being so close to each other, the two local councils should have coordinated and pooled their efforts and no stone should have been left unturned to ensure no resources, whether financial or otherwise, are duplicated.
The situation the two mayors have brought about certainly does not fall in line with the government’s plans when it decided to launch the financial aid scheme to help local councils take initiatives and organise activities promoting the identity and the historical and cultural heritage of their respective community.
The government is now mainly focusing on assisting successful activities that have established themselves as quality events in the annual calendar. However, sensibly enough, the door was also kept open to local councils and administrative committees that came up with innovative and worthy projects, not necessarily fully linked to tradition and folklore, which was the original idea when the scheme was first launched and which, over the past three years, saw the partiipcation of a good number of local councils and various popular activities being held in many localities.
There is financial, social and cultural gain when activities organised by local councils go down well with the community and also prove to be an interesting attraction to tourists.
All those directly or indirectly involved in the planning and organisation of such worthy initiatives, whether recapturing traditional practices and ancient customs and bringing them to life, particularly to the benefit of the younger generations and visitors, or providing healthy entertainment to all, deserve the kind of appreciation, encouragement and support the government is offering them.
It must constantly be kept in mind that attracting crowds, particularly tourists, to localities and events held there calls for the kind of welcoming environment people rightly expect and deserve. It is likewise imperative that such an environment prevails throughout and also after the event if one is to ensure success next time round and have repeat visitors.
It is against this background that the dispute between the Valletta and Floriana local councils must be seen. Disagreements of this sort, especially between two neighbouring rivals, is likely to up tension and make people think twice before attending next time similar events are held. That is why such squabbles need to be bipped in the bud.
Dr Said must mediate and set in motion “consultations”. But the biggest and main responsibility falls on the two mayors. They must at once bury the hatchet and lead by example. Difficult? Definitely. Impossible? Never.