The Sliema Local Council has announced that a section of Tigné Street will be renamed for the locality’s first mayor, Robert Arrigo, who passed away in October 2022 aged 67.

Mr Arrigo founded Robert Arrigo & Sons, a destination management company that helps tourists make the most of their stay in Malta, serving over three million clients in its close to 40 years of operation.

Apart from being recognised as a “pioneer” in the tourism sector, Mr Arrigo was a popular figure, holding prominent roles with Gżira United, Sliema Wanderers and Neptunes WPSC.

The notable businessman was elected as the first mayor of Sliema upon the introduction of local councils in 1994. Voters returned him to office with the highest vote count in Malta in the 1997, 2000 and 2003 elections, with 2003 also seeing his eventual election to Parliament.

Mr Arrigo served as a Member of Parliament from 2003 until his death in 2022, and as a Deputy Leader of the Nationalist Party from 2017 to earlier in 2022.

The decision to rename the section of Tigné Street between Ċensu Scerri Street and St Anthony Street, to become Robert Arrigo Street, was approved unanimously by the Local Council and later confirmed by the Government’s Street Naming Committee.

Current Sliema mayor John Pillow said “it is an honour to have a street in our locality named for the greatly missed Honourable Robert Arrigo where he lived and work so hard as the first mayor.”