Parking at St Paul’s Bay

Triq it-Tonn, St Paul’s Bay, is a small street leading to the Veċċja area of Xemxija. Up to three years ago, this street was little more than a safari trail. However, it has now been embellished and the scenic sight is a major attraction to tourists passing by. There is more that can be done but this is not the subject matter of this letter.

Unfortunately, as the embellishment works were under way, it was observed that this led to a reduction in parking availability. This situation was made worse due to a number of apartments built, which brought more people to the area and the fact that when the people in charge of marking out parking bays and restriction lines came over they reduced the parking lots in the slope leading down to the sea from three to one bay. I personally remarked that they were overdoing it, they could at least have left two bays, however, I was told that those were the regulations!

To rub salt into the wound, some bays opposite some garages were initially painted with parking bay lines; later that same day, the markers lines were converted to double yellow lines on the insistence of the garage owners who claimed they did not have enough space to turn the cars – this is debatable in at least a couple of cases.

In an effort to further reduce parking availability, two bays next to a dilapidated farmhouse were removed earlier this year.

The owners of these garages are very vigilant and every time somebody dares park his vehicle there, one can immediately see the wardens’ car coming over and booking the offender/s; several cars have also been towed.

Several people have become so desperate that they have thrown caution to the wind and leave their vehicle parked on either side of the single parking bay in the slope – some are very unlucky and get booked straight away, others are either simply lucky or privileged.

A case in point happened a few days ago – vehicle BBU 889 was parked on the upper side of the bay and had a ticket fixed to the wipers but the other car, belonging to a doctor, was not booked.

At 7 a.m. wardens’ vehicle JET 508 was driving down the road. I am not sure if it was the same person who issued the ticket. However, he saw the other car parked on the lower side of the parking bay and drove by!

The car referred to has a permit that allows doctors to park their cars even in restricted areas, obviously due to the fact that emergencies may entail such necessities. However, what people find strange is the fact that this particular doctor actually resides there!

I do not think further comment is warranted!