Sliema local council 'shedding duty' and 'passing the buck' - residents' group

In a statement, the SRA expressed doubt over the council’s decision to hold a referendum for residential parking zone decisions. “It seems that the council is shedding its duty, to make a reasoned decision, by putting the onus on the residents to deflect criticism,” the SRA said.

“SRA regrets to note that again the cart is being placed before the horse, as this decision should be taken in the light of a holistic traffic management plan/study for Sliema and the surrounding areas.”

“Why do we still lack any independent Traffic Impact Statement for this and all the other major projects sanctioned by MEPA in the last few years?” the SRA asked.

Even in 1992 - when the Development Brief of MIDI was approved (for low rise, low intensity mainly touristic use of Tigne and ManoelIsland) - the design commented on traffic and parking problems, the SRA pointed out. The number of cars in Malta has greatly increased since then so there can be no surprises in the resulting chaos.

“It makes no sense that Transport Malta (TM) delegates this responsibility to the council when the it is giving little importance to strategic planning of traffic management and consequently failing to connect the link between traffic and air pollution in Sliema, the latter exceeding the EU safeguard levels,” the SRA said.

The SRA said that on 21 March 2007, the Sliema councillors had “unanimously agreed to commission a traffic management study and went as far as allocating the funds for it (Lm2,000).”

“Four years later,” the SRA said, “this study has not been done and seems that it has been forgotten altogether. Furthermore the SLC rejected traffic management proposals made by the former ADT (now TM) to mitigate traffic flow problems in Rudolph Street and M Dimech Street in 2007, without coming out with its own traffic management proposals.”   

A meeting between the Fort Cambridge developers and SLC in 2007 resulted in the following comment being recorded on MEPA’s website “Although a Traffic Impact Statement has been submitted by the developer, Sliema Local Council is requesting a full Traffic Impact Assessment from a holistic point of view;”

Click here for meeting minutes.

Only last September, SLC decided to apply for EU funds to commission a traffic management study at the insistence of the SRA, thus delaying this initiative awaiting EU funds - which might take more than a year to materialise, if approved, the SRA added.

“Meanwhile from the millions collected under the Commuted Parking Payment Scheme, not a cent of has been spent on alleviating the escalating traffic problems in Sliema.”

From their side, TM has not found a need to make any Traffic Management study.

“TM blames MEPA for generating so much extra traffic by the granting of further development permits within an already unsustainable town. The Chairman also excuses his authority by claiming that TM awaits a request from council to propose traffic management schemes, a subject that, with all due respect, lies outside the expertise of the councillors. 

“To put the cherry on the cake, the SLC have complained that they have repeatedly asked TM for such a study without result,” the SRA said.

In the mean time, the association said that residents have to suffer all the problems related to an over congested traffic system and the consequential air pollution while TM and SLC “pass the buck from one to the other as who will do any traffic study.”

“Meanwhile the authorities feel free to close arterial roads, to allow the embellishment of pavements, without giving a hoot as to how this might affect the already precarious traffic system and its impact on the residents.”

“So while TM experts mull over whether to do a traffic study or not, and the SLC waste their efforts on internal power struggles and political feuds, the residents are called to decide an issue which will have major repercussions and unpleasant consequences later.” 

“Who will then take responsibility for clearing up the mess?” the SRA asked.