Problems caused by haphazard parking (2)

According to a report on The Sunday Times (July 12), the Transport Authority (ADT) is preparing to issue a legal notice to install residential parking slots in 19 areas, Sliema being the most affected with some 80 streets involved.

This is good news for some but, unfortunately, it will hit both ways. Today, most families have more than one car. If a family is lucky and has an underground garage on the block, the other car is parked on the street where space is found.

With the new reserved facility the special markings would be taken over by the residents. Limited free parking spaces would also be occupied and, to make it more of a joke, these reserved spaces would be protected between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m., after which time they would become available.

The business community will definitely be affected and will probably have to shed some employees, causing more unemployment. Wardens will be employed to control these reserved slots and issue fines. More tax.

The previous Sliema local council did not solve this problem but filled most areas with yellow paint markings. The new council is trying to keep its pre-election promises, thereby creating a monster problem. We have to realise and admit that we are a small island and certain restrictions cannot be tenable unless the importation of more cars is banned.

The Pietà local council seems to have forgotten the sentence given by Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco in a similar case regarding parking. In his ruling 949/2004 he held that such a system would be ultra vires because it would mean discrimination against citizens of a different area.

This sentence should apply to all areas. Where is the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs? Failure in this respect would be tantamount to playing with fire. What is the opposition doing about this new legal notice? Have we become a third-grade country where everyone does as one pleases?

We all pay road licences to make use of the roads. Reserved parking should apply only to disabled persons. ADT should first make sure that all roads are brought up to standard and action taken against vehicles creating pollution. We shall all die of cancer unless action is taken and these vehicles are removed from our roads. The smoke signals have been given. Now it is up to the authorities.

Leave things as they are and let anybody occupy a parking space if they find one, naturally within limited hours, as they do in other countries.