I am sure that the business community and local residents and visitors alike are eternally grateful that, at ministerial level, a decision was made to resurface some of the main roads in Buġibba and Qawra. I am totally perplexed as to why the people who are given the task to oversee the works failed to notice a dangerous four-to-six-feet wide by four-feet-deep trough that runs for half a kilometre along the coast road and is badly in need of urgent attention.

Is it not crystal clear that should someone cross the road at night they could end up with a broken or twisted ankle?

Has this work not been done because the person/s delegated to oversee the repairs could not visibly see the danger? Or is this because for one reason or another we are better off closing our eyes to partly-finished jobs?

Is it that the workmen do not have any pride in what they do?

Has this work not been done because, by leaving some work outstanding, it is ensured that by next year the repair required will be more complex, therefore more lucrative to the contractor or perhaps there is not enough profit in patching up small areas and the contractor only wants the "meat and wants to leave the bones to someone else"?

Would someone responsible please answer the public's concern as to why we can build new roads to international standards but cannot do decent patching that lasts, even though this is done in other countries to a high standard that withstands extreme weather conditions, not just one downpour as happens locally?

Can someone at ministerial level visit the site and bring along with them the media together with their paraphernalia so as to highlight this amateur approach to road repair in the hope that future work will be done to a professional standard, hence making patching repairs longer and less costly to the tax payer in the long run? If no contractors in Malta are able to guarantee the standard of their work, perhaps it is time the work was contracted out to a reputable overseas contractor who will guarantee the work that may cost more in the short term but will be cheaper in the longer term.