The Palace Hotel pavement

I write as chairman of AX Holdings in reference to Conrad Portanier's letter of August 25, in which he referred to the issue of traffic congestion created by the tourist coaches in High Street, Sliema.

I totally sympathise with the reader, however, he is not aware of the facts surrounding this issue. The wide pavement he is referring to is in reality not a pavement, but a purposely designed and designated reserved area, intended to serve as a coach lay-by, in accordance with the applicable Mepa permit. Our company, in order to accommodate a wider space for the coaches, had in this case taken what in my view is the decision to set back the pavement into its property in order to ensure that the road is wide enough to take the traffic flow in the area.

The present chaos in High Street is not the result of this decision taken by Mepa or the developer but is the direct effect of the Sliema local council's unilateral decision to accommodate three parking bays precisely in this purposely designed space for loading and unloading of tourists. Totally ignoring the Mepa permit, issued following the taking of due consideration of traffic management in the area, the local council took this unilateral decision to accommodate the parking bays, as the reader stated, "(with) no concept of basic urban planning principals". To add insult to injury, the council has deliberately decided to paint parking bays in the area of the road right in front of the hotel entrance alongside the pavement, which Mepa had incidentally designated as free from parking in order to avoid traffic congestion. As usually occurs in such cases, drivers park their cars over the whole width of the pavement thus blocking access to pedestrians and to the hotel main entrance's private covered car port.

The picture clearly shows the abusive parking of vehicles caused by the council's decision to overrule what has been provided for in the Mepa permit. It is a real shame that the developers and Mepa have undertaken all the necessary studies and taken all necessary precautions to avoid traffic congestion, only for these efforts to be capriciously torpedoed by the council. The fact remains that unless this council's decision is reversed, the coaches have no other place to park. I do not think that we have to ignore Mepa's permit and change it to any other authority's proposal.

The above demonstrates a case of well planned traffic management, mercilessly destroyed by decision makers. The result of such "interference" has been inconvenience both to the hotel operation, as well as to residents in the area, motorists and the public.