Just 22 parking spaces are reserved for MPs when Parliament is not active, according to Transport Malta, saying this was a small number of bays compared to the 3,000 available spaces for Valletta shoppers.
Transport Malta (TM) was defending itself against a request made by the Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry for MPs’ reserved bays to be relinquished in summer, while Parliament is in recess.
The 22 reserved bays in Merchants’ Street was such a small number compared to the 3,000 spaces available that it made “no material difference” to parking for shoppers, the authority said.
The chamber “is obviously aware of this”, it added.
The chamber had complained that the parking situation in the city was already critical and was “severely hampering” business as drivers had to circle around the city endlessly.
However, TM pointed out that the 22 reserved bays were located in front of the chamber’s offices.
“This ‘neighbourly’ interest would have been understandable if the Chamber declared it from the outset,” it said. Reserving a small number of spaces for parliamentary business throughout the year was not a “recent invention” and it was practice for the past 20 years, TM said.
The Chamber also complained that the authority had ignored its concerns and recommendations about the issue.
But the authority said that what it thought about the matter was beside the point because “as everyone is aware” its policy was to minimise the number of reserved spaces for an efficient use of the area. “It is Parliament itself, through its Speaker’s office and its permanent committee on parliamentary business, that has repeatedly confirmed its view that a number of spaces reserved for parliamentarians, in close proximity to the Parliament building on a year-round basis, is necessary for the conduct of parliamentary business,” it said.
Should Parliament indicate that it does not require the reserved spaces anymore then TM would be only too happy to comply, it said.