Floriana parking scheme

I would like to reply to the news item titled Musical Cars In Floriana As Businesses Object To Parking Scheme (November 15) by pointing out, first of all, that the journalist in question failed to contact any member of the Floriana local council thereby not providing a fair chance to fellow councillors to render public the council's viewpoint about the (new) Floriana parking schem.

One might have thought that a basic principle in fair reporting was to provide an opportunity to all sides involved in any controversy or dispute to air their views but, apparently, the council's view about the subject was deemed to not be important enough to merit an interview.

One wonders why Rosanne Galea, supposedly on behalf of the Floriana Business Community, stated to The Times that the "new residential parking scheme was introduced overnight and with very little consultation" since such a consideration process had been undertaken for the past four years at least (if not more).

As a councillor in the locality even in the past, I distinctly remember that when, during the legislature of the second Floriana Local Council (1998-2001) then mayor Nigel Holland had first raised the idea of a residential parking scheme for Floriana, certain other mayors, and even other prominent politicians, tried to shoot down the thought by attempting to ridicule such plans.

What, however, took place afterwards was that these same mayors then rushed to introduce residential parking schemes in their respective localities (even before any such scheme was introduced in Floriana). So much for political consistency and seriousness!

Since the Floriana business community is represented by the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprise - GRTU, it might interest readers to know that, initially, during the discussion process, the GRTU was all in favour of the two-hour parking permit. This is proven by a letter in this sense sent by the GRTU to the Floriana mayor (dated November 27, 2006). It was only subsequently that, in yet another GRTU U-turn, it informed David Sutton of the Malta Transport Authority that it was strictly against the two hour, 30-minute parking permit (letter dated May 25, signed by Vince Farrugia).

It was incorrect, if not misleading on the part of the Floriana Business Community to claim that the scheme, now in implementation, disrupts the productivity of business. As it stands, the scheme provides permission to anyone coming to Floriana for business transactions to park in the controlled parking zones for a full two-and-a-half hours without paying anything and without being subject to a fine.

A person will undergo a fine only if he/she has not removed an unregistered car from the controlled parking zone after two-and-a-half hours.

In order to further encourage business in the locality and certainly not to disrupt it, any car parked in an uncontrolled parking zone for an unlimited amount of time, whether belonging to a Floriana resident or not, will not be fined.

It would seem that Ms Galea has not yet really understood how the scheme will operate.

Does she know that the council had obtained an ADT clearance to launch and to implement this scheme?

In point of fact, I can reveal (and can also name them should they give me the go-ahead to do so) that several big businessmen based in Valletta and in Floriana contacted me and told me that it was high time that traffic management was conducted in a professional manner (not only in Floriana).

Many of them were very openly appreciative of the fact that the Floriana council had often lent a hand (even to Valletta-based businesses) whenever these had problems with Mepa. Instead of being a hindrance, any professionally run parking scheme, if fair, could be an added boost to business interests but no businessman (whether small, medium or big) should be above the law.