Safety last

If I am not mistaken, some months ago, the minister under whose aegis MEPA operates formally announced that he had prepared a set of neighbour-friendly “regulations” (not guidelines) for the building industry to safeguard victimised neighbours from the ravages and destructive effects of clumsy demolition squads; supervised, if at all, by neglectful architects of adjacent re-development houses for demolition.
Such careless demolition of adjacent houses not only is a colossal nuisance, with its cranes, skips, bulldozers, jackhammers, compressors, cement-trucks and pavement-destructive heavy vehicles. It also causes pollution, hassle, closure of streets, cracks in third-party walls, death and injury, damage to foundations, etc. All this in the core of old Sliema, supposedly being conserved as an Urban Conservation Area. Emphasis on the word “conservation”.
One is legitimately anxious to find out when the responsible minister intends to publish his legal regulations to safeguard the safety and well-being of residents. One should not need to remind the minister and MEPA of the fatal tragedies that have occurred in Sliema and St Paul’s Bay on account by similar, risky demolition.

Albert Camilleri
Sliema