The loss of another 62 parking spaces from the already depleted commercial heart of Sliema has got businesses and residents up in arms.

But the Resources Ministry said it will be discussing alternatives with Transport Malta and “looking into possible temporary solutions to alleviate the need to create more parking availability in Sliema”.

The Sliema Business Community yesterday strongly urged the government to immediately reinstate the lost parking and find another solution for the public transport buses. These were meant to pass through Bisazza Street but have been re-routed to Qui-Si-Sana and the Tigné tunnel to leave it free of cars. The required bus lane would occupy another 62 parking spaces.

The ministry has said it was not involved in the negotiations between Transport Malta and Arriva, which decided on Monday that the buses will pass through the tunnel and a lane created along the side of the sea, instead of the parking spaces. It, therefore, had no say in their removal.

The lack of parking spaces has been a sore point for retailers, who feel that, coupled with the total pedestrianisation of Bisazza Street, their businesses are destined to suffer.

The ministry had assured them “the plans for the embellishment of the Ferries area actually preserve the current parking spaces” and it yesterday stood by that statement.

The spokesman reiterated that the government was already working on a project for The Strand, from the end of Bisazza Street to Manwel Dimech, which would involve the embellishment of the promenade, while “seeking to find the necessary balance in terms of parking spaces”.

The business community yesterday joined the local council in expressing its “total disappointment” over the removal of the parking spaces, pointing out that its members were never informed of the negotiations with Arriva.

The business community has been meeting the ministry and local council to discuss the €3 million paid in Commuted Parking Payment Schemes by these businesses to create additional parking in Sliema. Although many areas were identified, no conclusions have been reached.

Other retailers were equally disgruntled. Grace Borg, Exotique business director and a resident, saying she was “amazed” at the “announcement” of the bus lane as a solution to the Arriva impasse because, already three weeks ago, she was aware that a tender had been issued for the resurfacing of the road from Tigné to Manoel Island for this purpose.

“This leads me to conclude that not only had the situation been anticipated, but it had all been planned!”

Ms Borg said the so-called Ferries Promenade Project has been discussed for five years but remained “shrouded in mystery” and was still on the drawing board.

Monsoon and Accessorize owner Theresa Bartolo Parnis said the loss of more parking spaces was another “letdown and a beating” for shops, and retailers were exploring ways to approach the authorities and get the “damning decision” reversed.

She said it further compounded the parking problem that was already aggravated by the total pedestrianisation of Bisazza Street.

Qui-Si-Sana and Tigné residents were also fuming, with the chairman of their association, Simon Camilleri, saying that in the rush to close Bisazza Street to traffic, Resources Minister George Pullicino “obliterated promised and proudly presented plans” to construct a three-storey, 90-space car park under the new roundabout, leading to the tunnel.

The chairman envisaged that the car park would either never be built or that the roundabout would be dug up and the tunnel closed again to do so – “a criminal waste of money”.

The removal of even more parking spaces was the result of “hasty, uncoordinated” planning by the ministry to “satisfy an ego, and is yet another nail in the coffin of Bisazza Street”.

Mr Pullicino should have first built the car park then the roundabout. “But he seemed to have the urgent need to cut a ribbon,” Mr Camilleri said.

The Transport Ministry has defended the decision to remove parking, proposing the use of the Midi car park or the express service to the park-and-ride facility at Pembroke.