In its latest newsletter, the Naxxar local council informed its residents that, spurred by the Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism's call to be "courageous" and give the traditional village squares back to residents, it proposes to use EU funds for this purpose and re-route traffic away from the square. Most of this traffic, we are told, is merely passing through. We are not told why the proposed new traffic arrangements would make drivers take other routes.

I am all for returning the village core to the pedestrian. But how the council proposes to do this, while encouraging more tourism, with the attendant traffic it brings, is beyond me. The council claims it has found a solution: to build a car park underneath the playing field just 100 metres down the road from the square.

The current playing field is a haven both in winter and in summer. The large trees absorb tonnes of carbon dioxide from the hundreds of cars that drive up and down Labour Avenue. Once they are uprooted to make way for the car park, this carbon dioxide will be absorbed by our children's lungs. The welcome shade which the trees provide in our long summer will be lost.

While town centres abroad are being closed to traffic, the Naxxar local council proposes to make it easier for cars and coaches to approach the town centre, which includes the playing field, by providing them with a convenient parking place, all in the interest of tourism. If it had exercised a bit more creative thinking, it would have realised that a much simpler solution exists. Just round the corner from the town square and only five minutes' walk from its major tourist attraction, Palazzo Parisio, is a huge open-air car park next to a property belonging to the same owners of the palazzo. The car park could also be put underground there.

May I appeal to the council not to take short-sighted, hasty decisions. In this connection, I believe that such projects should only be undertaken after a holistic and comprehensive study about their impact on the residents, the businesses and the environment.