Gozo regional airport proposal officially tabled in parliament

Feb 9 2022

The site plan of the Gozo area where the government is proposing a regional airport was tabled in parliament on Tuesday. A public consultation is expected to take place to receive feedback on the proposal.

Responding to a question in parliament by PN MP Chris Said, Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri said that the Xewkija heliport has not been operating since 2008 except for the occasional hospital airlift.

The technical experts engaged in the project were asked not to include the use of additional land used for agricultural purposes. They were also asked to ensure that the plan accommodates aircraft that can carry a maximum of 11 passengers and keep in mind the environmental impact of said airport.

The designs were not published by the Ministry, but he did state that they would be published in the coming weeks by the Gozo Development Authority. A site plan of the proposed area for the airport shows the airstrip extending more than the perimeter of the current airport, with the Minister explaining how the runway has to be developed to make space for fixed-wing aircraft.

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Photo Source: Clint Camilleri FB, Helis.com

Police received 18 cases of bullying on minors a year

Feb 9 2022

Police received 18 reports of bullying concerning minors between January 2021 and January 2022. Minister Byron Camilleri revealed the statistics in parliament when replying to a question by PN MP Graziella Galea.

The average age of the victims was 14, with St. Paul’s Bay reporting the highest reports at five. The Minister specified that the above cases were not categorised by the the type of bullying incident.

Victoria, Gozo and Ħamrun registered 3 reports each, with Santa Venera registering two reports. The others were spread out across different localities from Birkirkara, Naxxar, Safi, Dingli and Mġarr.

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Sliema council launches another bid to introduce resident parking scheme

Feb 9 2022

An upcoming meeting between the local councils and the transport minister will take into consideration Sliema’s parking problem, with the resident’s parking on the main agenda.Mayor Graziella Attard Previ said that the council is proposing a six-month pilot project to closely monitor the pros and cons of residential parking. She said it will be analysing whether it is sustainable or if it works specifically in certain zones, stating how the parking issue was always top of the agenda in every resident’s meeting had in the locality.

Transport Minister Ian Borg will be attending the meeting on February 15th, just weeks after the Sliema Annunciation Square was inaugurated. This had reignited the debate over open spaces versus parking in the busy town. The Sliema council was given permission back in 2012 to introduce a resident’s parking scheme, similar to localities like Valletta, Floriana and parts of Liga. The scheme would have allocated half of Sliema’s parking slots for residents during specific times of the day. Parking in reserved areas was only allowed for up to two hours and any breach of the regulations would result in a €23 fine.

Following an outcry of complaints and an hour-long strike by teachers in five Sliema schools, the plan was removed after the government intervened in June 2013 and through a legal notice. However, parking in Sliema still remains problematic, becoming even worse according to many. The mayor said that unfortunately, some of the new developments come with no sufficient car spaces or garages. ‘Along with an increase in population, the request for more parking spaces in the locality has only increased.’

Times of Malta were informed by the Mayor that discussions are being held with the hope of applying residential parking in all the roads of the locality. She also explained how the scheme will include a three-colour system. Green parking spaces will be allocated for residents only whereas white parking spaces will be allowed for everyone. Blue spaces will be a mixture of timed parking for both residents and visitors. The pilot project will be studying how these colour codes work in different zones to see if there is need to increase/decrease time slots or change parking bays.

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Rich countries urged to pay $16 billion up front for WHO’s COVID plan

Feb 9 2022

On Wednesday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) urged rich countries to pay their fair share of the money needed to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic by contributing $16 billion urgently.WHO said the rapid injection of cash into its Access to COVID Tools Accelerator could finish off the virus as a global health emergency this year.

ACT-A, which is led by WHO, aims to develop, produce and distribute resources to tackle the pandemic. These include everything from tests, treatments, vaccines and protective equipment. ACT-A also led to the development of the Covax facility, which is designed to ensure that poorer counties could access vaccines, current and eventual. This follows the correct, and unfortunate, prediction that richer nations would hoard doses. Covax delivered its billionth vaccine dose in mid-January.

$23.4 billion is needed for ACT-A’s programme for the year October 2021-September 2022. However, only $800 million has been raised so far. The scheme is therefore requiring $16 billion up front from wealthy nations to close the immediate gap, with the rest to be self-funded by middle-income countries. In a statement, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the rapid spread of the Omicron variant made it more urgent to ensure tests, treatments and vaccines are distributed equally.

He highlighted how if higher-income countries pay their fair share of the ACT-Accelerator costs, the partnership can support low and middle income countries to overcome low COVID vaccination levels, weak testing and medicine shortages. With just 0.4% of the 4.7 billion COVID tests administered globally during the pandemic having been used in low-income countries, only 10% of people in those nations have received at least one dose of the jab.

The vast inequity, WHO said, is costing lives and hurting economies, but also risking the emergence of new variants which could rob current tools of their effectiveness and set highly-vaccinated populations back months.

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