Wasted parking bays in Valletta

It's already 9 a.m.; you're in Valletta, feeling stupid for ever considering a car licence to enter Valletta and you realise you've just spent the past half an hour or so trying to find some parking space. The air gets thicker with every minute that passes by, your petrol gauge keeps stretching towards the zero mark and as you're walking to the office from your car, that you eventually parked a kilometre away, all you can think of is the look on your boss's face when you arrive late for work again.

We all agree that parking in Valletta has become a nightmare, but the problem doesn't merely relate to the increasing number of licences to enter Valletta which are being issued but also in part to the 'creative measures' so to speak, taken by shop owners who 'reserve' white parking bays with inventive objects - be it a concrete stone, a broken chair, a crate of soft-drinks, and oh! my favourite... a large box of vegetables...

As far as I know the law prohibits shop owners from placing anything on the pavement, let alone in the road. I feel it is justified to keep a place from the day before to park one's own car first thing in the morning (although technically this is not permitted either) but not to obstruct a bay merely to prevent others from parking in it. I therefore appeal to the authorities to take the necessary measures and if need be, fine those who are wasting our decreasing parking spaces merely to enhance the aesthetics of their shop façade by keeping a parking bay empty all day long.

What about the wardens? Forget the guy who has a third of his tyre on the pavement, the other guy who parked for 63 minutes on a 60-minute parking bay or the grandson who parked on a loading/unloading bay for a few seconds so that his grandmother doesn't have to walk five blocks. We're dealing with an average of one parking bay per street being wasted - this certainly doesn't ease the parking problem in Valletta.