• The huge, glass-fronted showroom nearing completion just by the playground in Fleur-de-Lys, across the way from the Wignacourt Aqueduct, has overflowed its boundaries, so to speak. A long, unnecessary pavement has been laid in front of the entrance of the showroom, causing an inconvenience to residents, pedestrians and motorists, since it is in a bend of the street. To accommodate the owners of the showroom, just this part has been made a one-way street, such that drivers have to go around two blocks instead of right through as they used to.

Deliverance

• When will delivery staff learn they have no right to double park on a main road (or any other street, for that matter), especially during the rush hour, to unload their cargo at outlets? The powers-that-be must take a tough stand and if the salesmen do not cooperate then their employers should be held liable.

Bottlenecked

• Speaking of the rush hour, can Transport Malta kindly assess the situation prevailing in Railway Road, Attard, say, between 7 and 8 a.m., especially on school days? If the stretch near the US Ambassador’s residence cannot be declared one-way then, at least, two traffic wardens should be deployed at each end of the narrow part to ensure a better flow of traffic.

Booked

• The abandoned car parked by the side wall of St Michael’s School in Qormi has now acquired a fine, which indicates the place of residence of the presumed owner. Surely, word could have been sent to him about the whereabouts of the car, just in case he is looking for it! Why is it that many wardens are so eager to dole out fines for infringements but not as ready to help fellow men?

Lighted

• The street lights were left on all morning at Fleur-de-Lys Road, Sta Venera, on November 17. This column has often suggested that, besides a trip-switch, or whatever is used these days to control lighting, some kind of secondary checking system is employed so that this kind of wastage would not occur as frequently.

Voyager

• Air Malta appears to be going out of its way, literally and figuratively, to irk clients enough so they will not be repeat customers. To add insult to injury, when flights are cancelled, people are offered take-it-or-leave-it alternatives and would-be passengers often have to incur extra expenses for lodging or even flights, for which they would not have budgeted.

Detailed

• HSBC is asking long-time clients to update details; cashiers are filling in a new form. However, the details being requested are already in the data banks, otherwise, various transactions done over the years could not have been carried out. A cashier who was told this said this was a “different programme”; perhaps it is easier to collect details from source gradually than to cross-check hundreds of entries.

Sheltered

• As from last Sunday it has been made easier for the elderly, and the lonely, in the community to avoid having to seek community life. The night shelter inaugurated at the Jesus of Nazareth Convent in Żejtun is a marvellous initiative, following in the heels of the day centre system. This Church-state initiativeis so far able to cater for eight persons; one hopes that, soon, more such centres willbe inaugurated all over the island.

Speeded

• The good news is that nearly 1,500 motorists obtain a partial refund of their speeding ticket fines because it has transpired they were fined double for driving faster than they actually did. The bad news is that ARMS Limited informs clients “any payments affected against the provisional bills will be deducted from the invoice total of the actual bill” but this, of course, will happen later and the actual bills may be for much less than the provisional ones.

Medicated

• Following another sad case of the demise of a child, the press has reported the Ombudsman as saying that “... at times it was difficult to define the extent of the information that could be given to persons who presented these requests, also in view of any litigation that could possibly arise from the details that are being released”. One assumes litigation would arise only if things that were not supposed to have happened did. Seeing that not everyone is ready to go to court, one hopes all this will change with the introduction of the Freedom of Information Act. This would, at least give closure.

Exposed

• Derryn Hinch, an Australian media personality who is very popular on talk back radio, has gone to prison twice – because he exposed the names of paedophiles. Franka Arena, a female politician in New South Wales, was blamed for the suicide of a paedophile judge whose name she exposed. It will be interesting to find out what bearing the Data Protection Act and the Freedom of Information Act will have on the local media when it comes to certain sensitive topics.

Transported

• The new public transport system cannot come soon enough for the considerable number of people who make use of it on a daily basis. Commuters hope the new buses will be user-friendly for elderly people and young mums travelling with pushchairs. The old buses now in use present a challenge for these two categories to climb up the three very high steps to get into the bus. One hopes, however, the charade of purchasing tickets on the bus itself will be done away with.