Opposition MP urges government to clamp down on foreign cars

Opposition MP Kristy Debono urged government to clamp down on cars with non-EU number plates, describing them as an “ever-increasing problem”.

Warning that no regulatory body ensures that they are being circulated according to local and EU laws, she questioned why the government has so far failed to take action.

“Malta’s traffic problems are already significant, and shouldn’t be complicated further because of a lack of proper enforcement on foreign cars,” she said in her parliamentary adjournment. “Anybody driving without permission, a driving license or insurance should be stopped and brought in line with the law.”

She also warned that incidents involving these cars could be going unreported, as their number plates are written in Arabic - a language that the majority of citizens cannot understand.

In her speech, Debono also criticised the recent conversion of Triq ix-Xatt in Ta’ Xbiex into a one-way road towards Valletta. She warned that traffic that used to pass through the road en route to Ta’ Xbiex, Gzira and Sliema is now being deviated into narrow streets.

“This has led to traffic congestion, frustrating the residents who are now scared to leave their houses and feel that they have become prisoners in their own homes,” she said.

She warned that buses and other large vehicles are being forced to pass through extremely narrow roads such as Triq l-Ambaxxati, that are challenging for normal sized vehicles to pass through.

“The residents in the area feel betrayed at the manner in which this system was imposed on them, without any prior consultation,” she said. “It appears as though government and Transport Malta were insensitive to the residents’ problems, and decided to introduce these systems based off their own judgement. I can only hope that Transport Malta conducted some sort of studies, because if they didn’t that would only aggravate their irresponsibility.”