The Qui-Si-Sana Residents Association said yesterday that the proposed car park development they are opposing was part of an overall plan by Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) to shift the Sliema town centre to the Tigné peninsula.

In a bid to rope in owners of Sliema commercial outlets to their cause, Qui-si-Sana residents said at a press conference there were plans not to allow parking in the Gzira strand and also to restrict parking in Bisazza Street and Lower Tower Road - Sliema's shopping mecca.

Martin Debono, an architect and Labour Sliema councillor, used a diagram to explain how the Manoel Island Project, the Town Square and Qui-si-Sana development, as well as the business project of Tigné, would shift the town centre to the new areas.

Besides the fact that these projects provided for the opening of new commercial outlets, Mr Debono said there were policies laid down by MEPA for the Gzira and Sliema areas which showed that shoppers would not be allowed to park close to existing shops.

"Not allowing people to park in those places will guarantee that existing commercial outlets in the town centre will be killed," Mr Debono said.

Qui-si-Sana Residents Association president Simon Camilleri reiterated that a car park in the area was "unneeded" and even "anti-social".

Dr Camilleri said residents were still opposing the car park development even though the government had said residents would not be negatively affected, giving guarantees that the car park would remain and not be turned into commercial outlets.

Dr Camilleri said plans clearly showed that the garden to be built above the car park would be made of two levels, with the lower level serving "as a seaview terrace for underground restaurant and bars".

"This is a clear case against any promises from the government that there will not be any change of use. A MEPA case officer told us that a commercial area was necessary to attract interest from developers," Dr Camilleri said.

In January, the local council came out against a parking scheme originally planned by the Qui-si-Sana car park developer, C&F Building Contractor, who wanted to make residents pay for parking in the road in their own hometown in compensation for running the scheme and putting up signage.

But Sliema mayor Albert Bonello Du Puis opposed the idea and said that as specified in the development brief, expenses for residential parking in all Sliema would be financed through CPPS funds - money raised by MEPA from developers who erected buildings without providing underground garages. He told The Times last week the local council wanted Sliema residents "to find parking outside their houses free of charge" through a residents' parking zone.

But Dr Camilleri said yesterday the residents' parking zone was a "carrot" through which the local council and the government were trying to win over the residents.

"What they failed to say is that residents will today or tomorrow have to pay for parking and that people who visit Sliema will either have to use the car park against payment, or will else look for a space in the sidestreets," Dr Camilleri said.

Finally he insisted that residents would continue to oppose the proposed development and would seek all legal means to do so.

Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Harry Vassallo, who was present for the press conference, defended the residents' cause and said it was a shame that the government was planning to give out a stretch of public land which was one of Sliema's last remaining open spaces.

Calling for a stop to "developers' omnipotence", the principle with which residents' were considered as "mere afterthoughts", Dr Vassallo said the Qui-si-Sana residents were battling "against all odds" and their best gain would be that things remain as they are.

During a meeting attended by the Prime Minister, senior government officials and all Sliema Nationalist MPs and councillors on February 12, it had been agreed that the car park project should go ahead.

Government ministers confirmed that at the meeting, it was decided that all concerns raised by residents "had been taken care of in the development brief so there is no need for changes", adding that the government would be "rigorously overseeing" the development to make sure the developer respected the conditions.

Replying to the press conference, the Environment Ministry said the Qui-si-Sana car park and the residents' parking zone were much needed projects which would solve the parking problems which residents faced.

"The residents parking zone and the car park will significantly reduce the time and frustration residents have to find suitable parking. Similar solutions were tried in other countries and found to be successful," the ministry said.

The Environment Ministry said the affirmation that new traffic will be generated within the residential side streets of Qui-si-Sana as a result of the development was groundless as the car park would have access from the arterial road going round the Tigné peninsula, "a road which has been planned for since the Sixties".

In response to the Qui-si-Sana residents' association's fears that the car park or parts of it will be turned into shops, the ministry said the development brief allows for an innovative visitor attraction but does not allow for the provision of shops.

"Moreover the development brief has enough safeguards incorporated in it to protect the residents' interests."