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I refer to the report in MaltaToday, 18 September 2005, under the above heading.
Mayor Publio Agius is trying to confuse the whole argument which arose over consultation, or the lack of it, by bringing into the issue the question of unanswered memos and other alleged shortcomings by the counsellors. There is much to be said about this but I will not dwell on the point, at least at this stage.
The truth of the matter is that there was practically no confrontation at all between Mayor Agius and any other councillor as to the park and ride issue (or rather, the residents parking scheme, which is what we are really talking about) until the public meeting called by the council.
The councillors and the public’s suspicions that Mr Publio Agius had been acting on this own only surfaced after Mr Manwel Delia, from the Cabinet committee, announced in the aforementioned meeting that there had been various consultations with the council on the whole scheme. Mr Agius did not intervene at the time to correct Mr Delia and he only categorically and vehemently denied that that there had been any consultations whatsoever, apart from a questionnaire, when he was quizzed, during two successive council meetings, as to whether Mr Delia had been telling the truth.
Despite Mr Agius’s protestations, only a few days later it was the turn of Mr Jesmond Saliba, Communications Co-ordinator at the Ministry for Information Technology and Investment, to state in another paper that there had been various meetings with Mr Agius over the matter.
So instead of turning his guns on his council colleagues and hiding behind any alleged shortcomings by the counsellors to avoid the real and burning question marks over the consultations issue, Mr Agius would do much much better should he point his aim solely in one direction by challenging publicly Mr Delia and Mr Saliba to deny that any consultations between him and the authorities had been held, as it was precisely the statements by these gentlemen which have placed him in such and unhappy position and justly fuelled the counsellors and public’s suspicions that indeed Mr Agius had acted on his own.
Until then, no wonder that the people of Floriana are still doubting Mr Agius’ words and actions over this whole affair.
Nigel Holland
Councillor,
Floriana
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