This is not just an issue of rubbish making Sliema look dirty. It is an accessibility and public safety issue.
When bags of rubbish are piled across the pavement, where exactly are people supposed to walk?
Parents with pushchairs cannot simply squeeze past. Someone using a wheelchair or mobility aid may have no way through at all. Elderly residents and people with limited mobility are forced to step off the pavement and into the road, sometimes on narrow streets with passing traffic.
And even for anyone else, pedestrians should not have to walk in the street because the pavement has effectively become a dumping area.
These photos show pavements in Sliema almost completely blocked by bags. This keeps happening, including when rubbish is put outside long before the correct collection time.
A pavement is a public walkway, not a temporary rubbish storage area.
There needs to be much stronger enforcement, particularly in streets with large numbers of short-let properties, together with clearer responsibility for property owners, hosts and waste operators.
Sliema residents should be able to leave their homes and use the pavement safely, whether they are walking, pushing a pram, using a wheelchair or simply trying to get from one end of the street to the other.
Should people really have to walk in the road because the pavement is full of rubbish?
This is not acceptable, and it should not be treated as normal.