Residents' parking already exists in various localities so why all the fuss and negative reaction to Sliema's local council plan? Nobody complained when St Julians, Paceville, Balzan, Birkirkara, Ħamrun and Valletta, to name a few, adopted the scheme.

Our streets are taken over by growing numbers of cars. It is impossible to find a parking place in Sliema on weekends. Therefore, some of us just do not risk using our cars knowing that we will not be able to park when we return.

People try all kinds of tricks to reserve parking.

We get those who park their cars in Sliema in a convenient place early on a Saturday or Sunday morning, go to their hometown by bus, return to Sliema in the afternoon, again by bus, safe in the knowledge that they can return home at their own leisure because their car is parked, waiting for them. How is that for selfishness?

It is true that people come to work or shop in Sliema, however, contrary to common belief, Sliema is not just a shopping centre.

The bulk of Sliema's streets are residential and no, not everybody lives in flats, another common belief.

A large number of us, the majority in fact, live in houses and Sliema being an old locality our houses do not have garages.

Residents are not asking for any privileges, they just want to be able to use their cars knowing that they will be able to park - and I am not saying if should be in front of their house - when they return home.

Unlike Valletta, which is dead after 7 p.m. when the shops close, Sliema's streets never get a breather. We can say that over here the opposite happens. All our streets are alive and kicking until well after midnight.

Only after that do we get some peace, when the cars start emptying our streets.

But by then it is way too late for the Sliema resident who would have already parked on yellow lines and called it a day!

I was against the scheme but after the barrage of contributions against the scheme by people living outside Sliema it is now clear that the Sliema local council was right to implement residents' parking.

Maybe one day we will have a park-and-ride scheme to accommodate visitors but in the interim we live here and we must find parking places for our cars, because like everybody we have to go back home.

That is why we need residents' parking.