MP calls for Valletta access rethink

Labour MP Charles Buhagiar yesterday urged the government to rethink its plans for vehicle controlled access to Valletta.

He told Parliament that plans to charge motorists 35c per hour of parking in Valletta and the removal of some 2,500 parking spaces needed to be thought through lest they ended up killing off Valletta instead of giving it a new lease of life.

He said the opposition had never been against the Park and Ride scheme and it welcomed the government's U-turn in that commuters were not being charged to use the service.

However, the government as from March intended to charge motorists 35c per hour for parking in Valletta. Furthermore some 2,000 parking slots which were irregular and another 600 which were in zones earmarked for pedestrianisation would disappear. With the Park and Ride providing only 900 parking slots, there was still a shortfall of 1,600.

The government argued that people should use alternative means of transport, and launches from Marsamxett and Cottonera were mentioned as an example.

Mr Buhagiar said such services had existed before. The MLP agreed on pedestrianisation, but it would be better if the government got such alternative services running efficiently before embarking on its restrictions on access to Valletta because the risk was of a bad situation being made worse, instead of being remedied.