I refer to the letter Potholes Or Paving: Mosta's Priorities, by Albert M. Bezzina (February 24). As the former mayor of Mosta, I would like to clarify some points for the benefit of readers.

First of all, the embellishment of Pjazza tar-Rotunda by the previous council was only undertaken after the council managed to get financial support from three different ministries. The share of the Mosta local council was therefore only one fourth of the total expenses.

A second point that I would like to make is that the sum mentioned did not cover only the paving of the square. Far from it! A ramp which made the church accessible to persons with special needs was built, three arches of the large cistern which lies in the middle of the square were reinforced as they were in a very dangerous state, an old water culvert was cleaned and the much needed maintenance works were done after years and years of total neglect, new rain water culverts were built in Church Street and the first part of Constitution Street in order to alleviate the ever increasing rain water problem, trenching was dug for Enemalta cables etc., the square and the parking area were rebuilt and resurfaced, new paving was laid and street furniture was installed.

The maintenance of the roads in Mosta was never neglected. We did, on a regular basis, our best to maintain the roads in good shape. Besides, we reconstructed and re-laid a number of streets from our budget.

We put continuous pressure on the central government on the fact that a large number of roads in Mosta needed to be resurfaced. As a matter of fact a large number of these were built anew by the ADT over a number of years. Currently Triq il-Ħtajriet is being built at the expense of about €1,000,000.

However, I believe that the Mosta local council is not getting its due share from the government's allocation to the local councils. Over the last 40 years Mosta has grown from a small village to the second largest town in Malta. Unfortunately most of the roads in the new areas have never been given a layer of tarmac. I have repeatedly pointed out that the formula used to determine each council's share needs to be changed to make good for this deficit. However, I admit that it is not easy to find the right formula which takes into consideration other particular problems in other localities.