Bicycle Advocacy Group threaten legal action over Mdina Road roadworks

A group representing Maltese cyclists has filed a judicial protest against the minister for transport and infrastructure, complaining that their input was completely ignored in consultations about infrastructural works on Mdina road in Zebbug.

The Bicycle Advocacy Group – an NGO which aims to promote cycling as a safe and sustainable mode of transport in Malta - filed the protest against Minister Ian Borg and Infrastructure Malta this morning, arguing that the minister had put aside research-based studies and proposals that the group had submitted during meetings with him.

“Despite the fact that the group participated fully in this consultation process with altruism and civic sense, all the proposals that it made were totally ignored,” reads the court document filed in the First Hall of the Civil Court earlier today by lawyer Claire Bonello on behalf of the group.

The judicial protest calls on Borg and Infrastructure Malta to desist from continuing to build or change public roads and infrastructure without “real and effective consultation” with the group and to change the design, infrastructure and equipment of the mentioned roads to ensure that they are not a danger to road users. Failure to do so could result in the group seeking damages, it warned.

In a statement on Saturday, the group said that the point of the judicial letter was to specifically show the authorities that cycling needs to be taken seriously, rather than as an afterthought. 

It said that while the NGO agrees, in principle, that Malta's roads require a "massive facelift and redesign to keep up with the current demand", the current upgrades practically ignore the "growing potential" of cycling as a means of transport in Malta. 

BAG said that while it felt it had been left with no choice but to take legal action to make its point stronger, the group "remains with the firm belief that with goodwill from all entities, its target can be reached". 

It said however that cases as are the Tal-Balal, Buqana, Zebbug, Marsa and Central Link projects were undermining cyclists. 

BAG said it "augurs that common sense prevails and all relevant authorities take sustainable transport seriously while promoting a much-needed modal shift from private-vehicular use".