We urged the authorities to ensure public safety, but nothing happened

Updated at 14:30

In 2023, festa enthusiasts put up a pole in front of a building in Ħamrun’s St Joseph High Street, which is home to a Jesmond Mizzi office and to NEWZ.mt.

The heavy pole, more than three storeys high and supposed to hold tense a steel wire for temporary festa decorations, has been permanently tied with a strap to third-floor window railings for more than year.

Last Friday it was discovered that one of the railings had already been forcefully dislocated, with screws torn out and the pole leaning even more towards the road, posing a threat to the safety of pedestrians and drivers in case of a collapse.

“Whoever decided to tie the pole to the railings not only did so without permission, but also did not take into account the forces that this would exert on the railing”, NEWZ.mt owner Michael Kaden said.

Kaden added that the safety issue was only found by coincidence because the window in question is covered from the inside at all times.

No immediate safety measures

On Friday evening, the situation was urgently brought to the attention of festa enthusiasts who happened to be working in the road using a cherry picker.

“I told them this pole needs to be taken down safely and they appeared to understand, but when I arrived back they had left without taking any measures”, Kaden said.

At that point, NEWZ.mt informed both the Ħamrun Local Council office and mayor Christian Sammut directly, with the latter replying he would “call them and check”.

Sammut only mentioned on Sunday evening – after Michael Kaden called out all contacted entities for not assisting – that he was not in Malta, which suggests the mayor was in fact unable to handle such urgent situation.

Misinformation from Ħamrun police

Earlier on Sunday, Kaden tried to reach out to 112 as suggested by a senior source in the transport sector, since the issue concerns road safety and Transport Malta does not operate an emergency enforcement line.

He was eventually referred to the Ħamrun police station, where a ‘light atmosphere’ in the background seemingly distracted the officer on the phone from understanding the urgency of the matter.

The Ħamrun Għassa even misleadingly told Kaden that “this is not a police case” with the explanation that it was “nothing criminal”.

As the full call transcript published on Facebook shows, it was quite an ordeal to describe the problem to the officer slowly and in simplified English.

“I insisted on immediate action and was told that the police would, quote, ‘try to call the people who take care of this stuff’. This was the last time I heard from police”, Kaden said.

“It is unbelievable that one has to spend a weekend urging authorities for a threat to public safety – your safety – to be resolved immediately, instead of enjoying free time. No, the authorities do not work in the interest of the people”, he added.

On Sunday evening, the Ħamrun pole saga even made it to the churches’ own current affairs platform Newsbook.

Safety concern remains

Update 14:30 | Workers sent by the local council on Monday afternoon only removed the strap connecting the pole to the railing, unsurprisingly causing the pole to lean even more towards the road.

This prompted a fellow journalist who was passing by the building on a bus to comment in a Whatsapp chat that the situation now “looks worse”.

“The forces that were able to pull a railing from its anchorage are not simply gone. The mayor has been briefed about this half-baked measure”, Michael Kaden said.

NEWZ.mt is not informed whether any actual safety measures will be taken and how the pole will be restrained from hitting the building in windy conditions.

A request to the police for an explanation on how our attempted report was being treated by the Ħamrun Għassa has remained unanswered.