Before the summer season got into full swing, I wrote a letter, on this page, warning that “Gozo is already full”. It is now, at the start of winter, still full.

It is not so much the number of people (although there are too many of them) but the amount of traffic. What we are seeing these days is that families who used to cross in one car are now bringing three. And the first problem is that when they get here there is nowhere to put them.

It is, to me, a clear sign that the cost of bringing a car across the channel (or, to be accurate, of taking it back) is far too low. Put simply, if people are bringing three cars instead of one, the price could reasonably be trebled. Maltese families, obviously, could afford to pay it.

You even pay to get into a church, these days. What’s wrong with paying a premium to visit an island?

Otherwise, assuming that it might be possible to count them accurately (which I doubt), there needs to be a limit on the number of cars than can be brought across. Erect a sign at Ċirkewwa saying no more vehicles because Gozo has reached its limit. The limit might be the same number (whatever that might be) of people who actually (genuinely) live here.

One way or another, there needs to be a brake on vehicular traffic on this “cleaner, greener,quieter” (former) beauty spot, where residents are choking on exhaust pollution and breathing air we can see.