The full picture

Although John O'Dea (June 13) suggests that I was "misinformed" in my criticism of the parking schemes that he holds so close to his heart, perhaps he would like to tell me precisely what item of information I presented in my letter was mistaken.

The fact is he did not contradict a single word I said. Neither did he answer the questions I posed. I wonder in fact what it was that I said that so "infuriated" him. Perhaps it was simply the fact that a "mere citizen" had the audacity to challenge the omniscient Pietà council.

I was surprised to note that Mr O'Dea admits to parking his car every day in front of garages belonging to other people, because he "knows them".

Do the Pietà wardens turn a blind eye at this because they know him too? I cannot imagine them so much as hesitating before issuing tickets to others doing the same.

Returning to the matter in question, I suggest that, before trying to smother us in "facts" and figures, Mr O'Dea might try to get his own facts right: 2,188 vehicles into 4,300 persons makes 0.51 vehicles per capita, not the 1.9 he suggested (although this conveniently strengthens his "case"). If he clearly cannot do basic arithmetic, how can we have confidence in any of the other figures he gave to defend his position?

Unfortunately, Mr O'Dea seems to have missed the point of my previous letter entirely. (Perhaps he should read more carefully before "shooting his mouth off".) My objection was not at all to do with time-controlled parking but that this should discriminate against those who are not from the area - in this case, several hundred thousand drivers and the very vast majority of citizens of this country who pay their road taxes just as much as any Pietà citizen does.

Indeed, Mr O'Dea seems to think that Pietá is the only densely populated/frequented area in Malta. Are not, for example, the Sliema and St Julians areas similarly overwhelmed by traffic? Would not Sliema/St Julians/Swieqi residents also like to have "a fighting chance to find parking close to their homes"? Believe me, we would! Does this mean we should bar Pietà drivers, or any others, from parking for more than half an hour in our locality? I do not think so.

Mr O'Dea "honestly cannot understand what the fuss is all about" - indeed, I have not been the first to write in this paper to complain about the Pietà council's choice to discriminate against so many of us. Perhaps this is because he is "lucky" and does not get a ticket slapped on his car every time he parks in front of someone else's garage. As for the rest of us, we "mere citizens" do.

I have no doubt that, if they had to put their heads to it, every council on the island would be able to come up with "good reason" to introduce similar parking schemes - schemes that, given the size and population density of the island, are simply absurd. So perhaps Mr O'Dea might like to respond to the questions I posed previously (and which, in his haste to sound like he "knew what he was talking about", he forgot to answer): Is not sauce for the goose also sauce for the gander? If one council is allowed to do this, then should not the same apply to all? And what if every council had to introduce such a scheme? It is this - the bigger picture - that Mr O'Dea seems to fail to grasp.