Giving space for parking

Over the past few years, parking has become a social, economic and political issue. The issue is making a daily appearance in the media and in the blogs and everyone seems to have a view and a point to make. We consider our car as a necessity but it has also become a cause of frustration and anxiety.

I must declare that I am no traffic expert but I have held the post of mayor of a local council for 13 years in a locality that, until a few years ago, had a parking crisis. I took the parking issue in hand and tackled it seriously. In Pietà, I introduced one of the first resident parking schemes, a scheme that has caused a lot of controversy and legal debate.

As a resident of Pietà I grew up next door to St Luke's Hospital and, therefore, I grew up in a locality that had a major traffic problem. I believe that I was innovative and did not shrug my shoulders at this situation, hoping it would sort itself out by time.

I keep a number of facts and principles in mind when administering a traffic system. The first fact is that parking space is limited and that parking space is diminishing and not increasing. We have only one level and that is street level, and in this area we have bus stops, garages, reserved parking zones, zebra crossings and, if there is any space left, we have free parking spaces. Notwithstanding this, a regulator, such as a local council, should keep in mind that commuters seek parking spaces for different reasons: residents want to park close to their homes, employees want to park fairly close to their place of work, customers want to park next to a shop or office and, in Pietà, when St Luke's Hospital was still operational, visitors wanted to park around the hospital to visit their loved ones.

Therefore, a parking scheme has to be moderate and address an infinite variety of demands.

The controversial Pietà parking scheme was introduced when there was no clear policy on this, nor was there a procedure on how a local council should apply to the regulator, the Malta Transport Authority.

I believe that a parking scheme should only be introduced when there is an imbalance of how parking is taken up. For example, when St Luke's Hospital was fully functioning, residents of Pietà and Guardamangia had no chance to park because hospital employees, visitors and out-patients took up most of the limited parking space at all times of the day. It is the duty of a local council in such instances to step in and sort out the demand in order to give a fighting chance to residents to be able to park close to their homes.

The argument that we are all Maltese citizens and that once we pay for our road licence we should be free to park wherever we want is a fallacy on various levels. There are various limitations concerning parking, and parking is allowed depending on the category of the vehicles or the owners of those vehicles. If we were to take the argument to the extreme, we are now EU citizens and we should have the right to park wherever we fancy in other EU member states and, consequently, the residents' parking scheme in London is illegal because it is discriminatory.

It is important to point out that not all localities are identical and some localities have characteristics that force a local council to take action in one way or another. Parking is an issue and I feel that, where there are crises and imbalances, the local council has a duty to address and tackle them.

Local councils are not the only regulators or promoters of schemes because there are other authorities that block parking spaces for one category of users or other. I refer, in particular, to un/loading bays for commercial outlets, reserved parking bays for disabled persons and reserved parking bays for public officials.

The business community is a vital component of any locality and a council should do its utmost to assist and promote investment in its locality. A number of business establishments have an un/loading bay, which is intended for delivery trucks and vehicles to deliver and distribute merchandise. However, are these being used for this scope? My experience is that delivery trucks still have to park in the middle of the road because these bays are used by the owner or manager of the establishment as their private parking bays. This diminishes the credibility of the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises - GRTU and the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association that argue that business is on a downwards spiral because of the lack of parking for clients and customers.

Then there are the reserved parking bays for disabled persons. The policy dictates that such bays should be allowed solely for persons with special needs. However, to my mind, it seems that anybody who has a slight limp is being granted a blue sticker and, sometimes, even a reserved parking bay.

On the other side of the scale, people in a vegetative state or in semi-coma are granted such bays. I remember once I was lambasted as being a heartless brute because I objected that a reserved parking bay be granted to a woman who was bed-bound, who never held a driving licence and never had any intention to start driving. I was informed that this bay was essential in case there should be a need for an ambulance. I really do not think that officials dishing out reserved parking spaces are making their verifications and I also have a niggling suspicion that they are accepting any sort of medical certificate.

Then there are localities that are dogged with another scourge, that of reserved parking for public officials and public offices. I work in Valletta where these reserved parking bays abound. When I once enquired why these public servants need a reserved parking place in order to give an effective service to the taxpayer I was informed that this would be required for security reasons.

To my mind parking a car on a reserved parking bay with a sign that the car parked belongs to a particular department or authority is a clear indication where potential vandals should target. The truth is that this is an untaxed perk. I think the judiciary is setting a good example where their drivers drop them off at the law courts and then they whiz off to a car park outside Valletta. Could public servants not take up the same practice, I ask.

These are just a few issues that increase the tension on parking and on local councils that try to strike a balance. When faced with parking problems, politicians, such as local councillors, should consider intervening. Dialogue and consultation are essential for the scheme's success. Therefore, attacking a local council for doing something about a problem is a lame argument. On the other hand, local councils that embark on such schemes cannot but expect controversy.

Dr Mifsud is mayor of Pietà.