The Naxxar church area should be turned into a car-free village core and not a traffic-choked roundabout, Alternattiva Demokratika insisted on Saturday.

This can be done with better management and diversion of traffic, AD chairman Carmel Cacopardo said, pointing out that cycling infrastructure is virtually non-existent in Naxxar.

This increase in traffic continues to deteriorate air quality and therefore contributes to respiratory diseases, among other problems.

"Naxxar, like all major localities in Malta is choked with unbridled growth and with traffic. The urban environment, that is so essential to residents’ quality of life is under siege," he told a news conference.

People and not cars should be given priority on residential roads, more so in the narrow streets of village cores. This can be done several ways, including by minimising speed in residential areas to a maximum of 30km per hour as well as the development of infrastructure to encourage the use of bicycles.

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He said the proposal made earlier this week by the Malta Developers’ Association so that they compensate so-called lost development opportunities due to restrictions in Urban Conservation Areas by providing additional development rights in other areas, will impact badly localities such as Naxxar.

The construction industry needs to be curbed and not given more and more leeway to continue with their destruction of Maltese localities, Mr Cacopardo said.

The MDA’s proposals will compound the problems caused by the 2006 rationalisation scheme, the impacts of which are being felt today.

"This is leading not only to normal low-rise houses being replaced by a concrete jungle, but has led to a huge of buildings and a large increase of cars in a small areas."