It seems that George L. Griscti (Swieqi To San Ġwann, October 21) is not aware of the real situation regarding the road that runs through Wied Għomor valley. To start with, local councils cannot expropriate private land to widen a road. It's the central government that should do these works.

Before Manuel Dimech Bridge was reconstructed, the central government planned a traffic diversion system to avoid traffic jams, part of which was to use this particular valley. The works ministry did widen the top part of Swieqi road but never bothered to do the same in the bottleneck, a bit further down, to allow a two-way free flow of traffic. I complained to the minister about this but it seems fell on deaf ears. San Ġwann local council was paying hundreds of euro to clear up the weeds that grew along the road from time to time. The total cost for cleaning up the area was around €698 every three to six months.

I know this area quite well and drive uphill in a careful manner from that bottleneck. The road is frequented even late at night, especially by many young students walking from Paveville to San Ġwann. I once even assisted a young student who happened to fall in the water culvert constructed just uphill in Pellican Street. I do not go for walks much because I use my car practically everywhere but I respect pedestrians.

Our council constructed a pavement to avoid fatal accidents, in place of the weeds. The road is now cleaner and safer, and costs less to maintain. With weeds growing on both sides of the road, we used to get many drivers complaining about the road getting narrower and even dangerous due blocked vision.

The pavements also prevent rubble from falling into the middle of the road when storm water seeps under the foundation of the walls. The concrete base of the pavements will stop the walls from collapsing. So, there is a lot of common sense behind these works. Wonder of wonders, during works in progress on Manuel Dimech Bridge, some wise guy from the central government came up with the idea of leaving the width of this particularly bottleneck as it is.