Following the launch of the government's project for the much-needed regeneration of Valletta through Renzo Piano's designs, I wish to submit my views on the issue of parking. In my opinion there is a golden opportunity that is being glaringly overlooked to very easily solve this problem and benefit all interested stakeholders so that parking in Valletta will never again be a topic of debate on this island.

Ever since Mr Piano presented his designs, which also included the commendable transformation of Valletta's ditch into a garden, there has been understandable consternation from one and all about the loss of the 400 parking spots that currently exist in this ditch. The government's seemingly knee-jerk reaction to this public dismay was to promptly announce that the Park and Ride car park will be extended by 400 additional spaces in order to compensate for this loss.

While the extension will always help, in my opinion, a unique prospect is being completely overlooked by the government to provide a comprehensive and lasting solution to Valletta's parking issue that would satisfy the business community, the thousands of persons working in Valletta, as well as the residents in one fell swoop. If Valletta's ditch currently caters for 400 parked cars, why has nobody considered the excavation of this ditch all the way down to sea level in order to not only safeguard the current 400 spaces but to actually increase these in proportion to the number of levels that may effortlessly be created all the way down to sea level?

This is just wasted space that is completely unutilised, providing only the single level of road access that currently exists from the Marsamxetto side into this ditch.

Given that the Piano project envisages the creation of a beautiful and welcome garden to replace the car park currently blighting this prominent space, there will probably never again be a better time to excavate the ditch as was originally intended by the Knights but never actually realised, in order to create, at the very least, four underground levels. That would readily translate into a minimum of 1,600 parking spaces right inside Valletta, having direct access through Piano's garden above as well as the scenic lifts that could easily be extended further down from the garden level, so that commuters using this multi-storey underground car park would immediately emerge into City Gate's Parliament Square or the Upper Barrakka Gardens, as well as, why not, Hastings Gardens at the entrance to this multi-storey and completely concealed underground car park.

This aesthetically compliant underground multi-storey car park would also offer the possibility of actually replacing the expensive Park and Ride system either partially or even completely, depending on the number of levels that emerge from the deep space available in this ditch.

The extensive and valuable land in Blata l-Bajda, currently sacrificed for this unpopular car park, would then be available for a much better use in addition to the savings that would be made on the operational costs currently required to manage the system.

With a little more ambitious planning, it is even conceivable to create an underground waterway tunnel linking the two harbours on either side of Valletta, providing additional value both for tourism and for commuters in Malta's congested transportation landscape.

At this stage, however, such a sea link would simply be an additional bonus when the current issue of conclusively solving Valletta's parking problem with a relatively inexpensive capital outlay has to be the main prize from such a very straightforward and highly feasible solution.