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At the close of my month-long holiday at Marsalforn, Gozo, and two parking tickets to boot, I feel I must focus a bit on the lawlessness (is it the word I want?) so evident, and police presence so lacking, that one is bound to think that Marsalforn is a free-for-all territory. I have witnessed (from a distance… for obvious reasons) tipsy young men and women (foreigners among them) playing rowdy games and yelling lustily for up to 3.45am; have listened to music, etc. commissioned by a restaurant for up to 1.15am.
Where is the long arm of the law? Absent, asleep, unwilling to butt in?
The two small streets leading to Marina Street, namely St Joseph Street and the other one are repeatedly blocked for hours on end by vehicles belonging to the business outlets there (presumably). Are the streets their property too? And we get the parking tickets. When the parking is full where can a person park, especially a visitor on a Friday or Saturday evening? Even motorcycles are getting tickets, I hear!
Notwithstanding the widening of the sidewalks for the benefit of restaurant owners (who else?) they still place extra tables on the road taking up more public space and what’s worse some encroach on private property by seating their patrons opposite other people’s houses. Again where is the law and MEPA? This summer they had yellow-line week. Yellow lines wherever you look authorised by the mayor (without the necessary ADT permit, we hear). It is obvious that the ones along Marina Street are for the benefit of the restaurants since the taxis that bring the customers are allowed to park in the ‘no waiting area’ with the wardens turning a blind eye. Why not make it an outright “Stand for Taxis” and to hell with everybody else.
On my last day at Marsalforn while strolling along the promenade in the cool of the morning and concentrating on the daily paper, I literally put my foot in it – a nice mound of soft, evil-smelling, greenish dog faeces. Disgusting – but looking on the bright side I’m now waiting for the good luck which treading into the stuff usually brings (they say). I’m also hoping for serious action from all concerned for a better Marsalforn. Visitors, both Maltese and foreign, expect it and the residents who spend all summer in this splendid resort deserve it.
G. Stepson
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