Floriana Mayor, Deputy Mayor say no one has officially contacted them about St Anne Street project
Nobody has officially communicated with the Floriana Local Council to discuss what should be done about the proposed plans for St Anne Street, Floriana Mayor Nigel Holland told The Malta Independent.Holland was asked for his reaction to reports of Pr
Nobody has officially communicated with the Floriana Local Council to discuss what should be done about the proposed plans for St Anne Street, Floriana Mayor Nigel Holland told The Malta Independent.
Holland was asked for his reaction to reports of Project Green deeming that plans to establish an underpass beneath the locality's St Anne Street are now unfeasible, as reported by The Times of Malta.
Holland said that the local council has only seen what has been seen by the public, as he remarked that he and the locality's councillors only became aware of the situation through the media.
The plans were for an underpass to be established beneath Floriana's St Anne Street as a means of rerouting traffic, and were a Labour Party electoral promise. With that said, The Times reported that such plans have now been deemed unfeasible and that Project Green is carrying out studies in order to identify other solutions to pedestrianise major areas in Floriana and San Gwann, another locality which also seems to be in a state of uncertainty when it comes to Project Green's plans.
Asked what the local council intends to do regarding these reports, Holland - who is an independent mayor - replied that an official position has not been taken yet as the council will be discussing it in an upcoming meeting on Monday to consider the implications.
"There is nothing on our end in terms of an official position, what I will say however, is that before the project was to be done, there should have been serious consultation... There are many in Floriana who are in favour and many who are not," he said.
Floriana Deputy Mayor James Aaron Ellul, who is a PN councillor, meanwhile told The Malta Independent that a discussion between the local council and the relevant Minister has never taken place concerning the proposed underpass. He added that the only discussion which has taken place was the result of a request made by the local council through a motion, but that no official call was made for the residents to determine whether they agree or disagree with the project itself.
Similarly to Holland, Ellul said that as far as he is aware, the local council has not been officially informed about these recent developments regarding the project and said that they only became aware through the media. "This just shows you how certain entities think of local councils," he remarked, adding that there should be some discussion on matters like this, as the local council is "the closest to the citizens."
Ellul said that the reports which came out on Sunday are shocking, in the context that whenever requests have been made for certain things to be done or restored, "We would be told 'no', with the reasoning that the road would soon be done." He continued that whenever concerns were raised about the subway being in a mediocre state and in need of renovation, "We would be told 'no' because development on the road is going to be done."
Expanding further on this, the Deputy Mayor said that there have been a lot of issues where Floriana was "held back" because of the hope that this road would eventually be done, though he remarked that there were many questions about how it would be done. He commented that Prime Minister Robert Abela has said that Floriana would "become a green town", though Aaron Ellul says that Floriana has been a green town since the time of the Knights and already has many gardens.
"There was no form of discussion regarding how this road would be done, just that there was a chance it would happen," he remarked. He continued that Miriam Dalli's ministry at the time, speaking about three years ago, had told the local council that studies were ongoing.
"It is evident now that these studies have concluded and Floriana has been held back three years because these studies took too long to complete and certain works that needed to be done in St Anne Street have not been done, which is the principal road in Floriana as we all know," the Deputy Mayor said.
He said that as far as he is aware, Project Green has never discussed this project with the local council. He commented that this development has been promised by the Labour Party for three elections, referring to the local council elections of 2019 and 2024 as well as the general election of 2022.
Having said that, he continued that now that a new local council has been set up, "with a new majority and a different opinion" than prior councils, he said that the council's opinion now seems to be that Floriana "needs to be seen to as soon as possible."
He added that if St Anne Street "remains in a state of abandonment", then that abandonment will spread from the centre to the whole locality of Floriana. He said that the new local council has begun discussions to begin repairs in St Anne Street, but that Ministries "do not seem willing to provide funding at the moment", and so the council is trying to see if certain works can be done with their present funds or if funding can be acquired otherwise.
Ellul concluded by saying that Floriana is suffering the consequences as a result of the government "dragging its feet". He continued that oftentimes, the road's development would be at the forefront of discussions in the locality, but that "all the hope which has been built up over the years has now been set aside".
Floriana was one of a number of majorities where neither the PN nor the PL achieved a seat majority in the local council elections last June. The PL achieved the most votes, however the election of independent Nigel Holland meant that the party had just 2 seats - the same as the PN.
The PL then failed to reach an agreement with Holland over the composition of the council, which allowed the PN to agree to vote in Holland as mayor, with Ellul appointed deputy mayor.
Related
Share this page
Guest Posts by Easy Branches
