Valletta needed saving.

Much more needs to be done to return to this great capital the pride it gives us who live and work in it. But we started.

After a week of the new CVA scheme, it is possible to breathe cleaner air. It is possible to walk around Merchants Street and in front of our beloved Co-Cathedral without having to fear for your life from cars negotiating their way through the tightest but prettiest urban corner of this country.

There are parking spaces available all over the city any time of day. When residents drive in they find parking reasonably close to home. When shoppers drive in they find parking close to the shopping centre and all they pay for that comfort is 35c an hour. I'm told some shops are already offering to pay for their customers' parking.

We are so used to our city being buried under cars that some mistook the absence of cars for the city being deserted. But data from the first week of the CVA shows this has not happened at all. There was only a 13 per cent drop in the net number of cars visiting Valletta. They just stay here for much less. There was a 60 per cent drop in cars that stay here for eight hours. But, a 34 per cent increase in cars that stay for less than an hour.

Only one type of car has quit the inner part of Valletta: Cars belonging to employees, idle all day all week (the cars, not the employees) blocking the way for visitors and residents from coming to our city.

Those employees have been inconvenienced. They've been asked to park in the periphery, use the park and ride system (for free), share cars or use the bus (which now includes direct non-stop routes at positively Third World prices).

The rest (shoppers, tourists and visitors) are still coming to the city and there's space for more. Valletta is a viable place to live in once again. Residents used to be prisoners of their own homes during the day. In the morning they could not leave their precious parking space (hard won the night before) because before the next night they could not hope to park anywhere near home.

Up to last week, who would come to Valletta for a working lunch? Or to look around shops? People came from outside Valletta after 9 a.m. only if they had to (some court summons or an errand at the Public Registry). The rest went elsewhere.

Now they're slowly creeping back. It is perfectly feasible to drive into Valletta at 12 noon, guaranteed to find a parking space within five minutes of driving in, walk 50 metres to your favourite restaurant, have a laid back lunch, drive out two hours later and all it cost you is 70c for parking.

Up to last week, anyone who had to come for a two-hour errand in Valletta around noon on a weekday paid more than 70c and walked more than 50 metres and spent more than five minutes to find parking. Plus they needed to have a V licence for the privilege, which only a tenth of car owners had. Now the city is open to all.

We have combined and satisfied two apparently contradictory objectives: Reduce cars from the streets of our capital and attract more people to it. We have brought together two seemingly rival lobbies: The eco/heritage side that promotes more intelligent use of cars and the commercial operators whose motivation is improved sales. I should say that the commercial operators have been explicit in their support for the scheme; the eco/heritage lobby has been more reticent in its acclaim.

Valletta is not yet what it deserves to be. But after one week of CVA it's closer than it has been for some 50 years.

Dr Gatt is Minister of IT and Public Investments.