Works on the Paola Square embellishment project, which started in February, have ground to a halt, raising concerns the prime site could be an eyesore for months.

Announced in April last year, the €3 million project is being piloted by the Consultative Council for the South, headed by Labour MP Silvio Parnis, and falls under the remit of the Civil Rights Ministry.

Though no precise time frame was given, the government pledged to complete the project by the end of this legislature, in 2018.

Residents and shopowners who spoke with this newspaper lamented that the initial momentum had fizzled out.

“After uprooting the trees in the lower half of the square and removing the paving, the area was hoarded off. Since then, works have stalled, with no workers seen on site for a number of weeks,” people on site told the Times of Malta. Commending the much-needed facelift to the square in the southern part of the island, they vented their frustration about the slow pace of the works.

A spokesman for the Civil Rights Ministry told this newspaper the project had commenced with preparatory work involving the uprooting of trees. He pointed out that this operation was carried out in line with the advice of experts and NGOs to improve the trees’ chances of survival elsewhere.

However, questions on the reasons for the slow pace of the works were not answered, with the spokesman reiterating that the project would be completed by the end of this legislature.

Designed by architect Christopher Mintoff, the project, which spans from the Paola health centre to the prisons, is meant to revamp De Paule Square by increasing open public spaces on the concept of urban gardens.

In a Facebook post last February, Mr Parnis said he had proposed the project 19 years earlier, when he was Paola mayor.