The sight of horse-drawn carriages ambling along Valletta's streets may become a thing of the past if authorities remove the base in St George's Square and do not give drivers an alternative in the city centre.
Kevin Deguara, from the Karozzini Association, said yesterday that horse-drawn cabs had to be in the city centre or they would not be able to work. "The main business is in the centre of Valletta. You don't see people elsewhere," he said when contacted.
On Monday, the courts are expected to decide on the removal of the base in St George's Square after cab drivers filed an application for a warrant of prohibitory injunction against the Malta Transport Authority (ADT) to stop it from relocating the stand, even temporarily.
The station has to be moved while work is underway to embellish the square but the new plans do not include a station for horses.
Yesterday, the ADT filed a counter application, saying it would be abusing its powers if it allowed the station to remain in a pedestrian zone and disrupt the embellishment project.
"The station is incompatible with a decent pedestrian zone," the authority said, adding that reserving central areas for pedestrians was a normal procedure in many cities.The ADT argued that restrictions for vehicles had been in place for a number of years and the project to pedestrianise more areas meant vehicles would have to choose other routes.
"The speed limits of karozzini would lead to big congestion problems," the authority argued, adding it wanted to strike a balance between the tourist attraction of horse-drawn cabs and the capital city's practical needs.
The authority said it planned to install a number of tents along the route to protect the horses but could not accept the cab owners' requests.
In their court application, 43 owners said the ADT had ignored their offer to change the wheels of their carriages to prevent further damage to the paving but still allowed electric cabs and park-and-ride vans to drive through roads where people were walking.
This was denied by the authority, which said there was no comparison between the two because the electric cabs did not pose a danger to pedestrians and did not dirty the area.
The cab drivers claimed they were self-employed and this was their main breadwinning activity.
Their stand in the square had been there for several years with the approval of the competent authorities.
A Transport Ministry spokes-man pointed out that some of the cab drivers who signed the court application appeared to be registering for work on the Employment and Training Corporation files. Others were registered as inactive and only 32 were either part-time or full-time self-employed cab drivers.