Pietà finally gets its police station

Hard work from the Pietà local council over the past few months will finally give residents what they have been waiting for – a proper police station.

Pietà mayor Keith Tanti told MaltaToday that after long talks with Commissioner of Police Peter Paul Zammit and also with the Ministry of Home Affairs, a new police station will be opened in the coming weeks which is situated near the main gate of what used to be St Luke's Hospital in Gwardamangia.

Pietà residents have long been without a proper police station: in 2006 then home affairs minister Tonio Borg inaugurated a police station in Hookham Frere Street on 1 March - just 10 days before the local council elections. Two years later, in July 2008 the same police station was closed and since then Pietà has had no police station.

In a leaflet issued in June 2012 by the Pietà local council, former mayor Malcolm Mifsud wrote that the council had asked the government to devolve to the local council the security room outside the St Luke's Hospital to use it a police station. Mifsud had then said that work on the police station would be complete by summer 2012.

But 2012 no police station had been opened. Under the new council, in just under a year the necessary funds were provided for the new police station.

“One of the problems we encountered was the ATM, because the bank had to use the same entrance where the police station now is, and this created a security risk. So we managed to open another entrance on the side and now we are waiting for the final touches to have the police station situated in a very sensitive spot," mayor Keith Tanti said.