The Sliema council wants a bus lane along the Ferries to be suspended to ease traffic flow, at least for the Christmas period.
Sliema mayor Anthony Chircop said the suggestion was made to Transport Malta during a meeting of the locality’s traffic sub-committee.
“The bus lane at the Ferries is complicating traffic flow,” Mr Chircop told a discussion meeting organised by the Sliema business community.
He said the bus lane was introduced when the Government was still planning an underground car park in the area.
“Now the project has been abandoned we expect the bus lane to be temporarily suspended.”
The bus lane was introduced some two years ago when the Arriva bus service started operating. It was a forced decision after lack of ministerial coordination on the pedestrianisation of Bisazza Street rerouted buses towards the Ferries area.
However, not to lose parking spaces, the two-lane carriageway along the front was reduced to a single lane for ordinary traffic.
As expected, the lack of parking spaces was a major concern for business people gathered at the meeting.
Entrepreneurs called for better regulation of the Ferries car park, amid complaints at the way it was being managed by the parker.
Mr Chircop said the council will shortly put forward a cheaper proposal for a better-organised surface car park that will also increase the number of available spaces. However, he admitted such a project could not be ready by Christmas, to the dismay of those present.
The underground car park project, which had been proposed by then resources minister George Pullicino, was ditched by the Government after the election because it was not deemed to be cost-effective. Mr Chircop admitted that even he had reservations about the expensive project.
Shop owners want the Ferries car park to be turned into a paid parking zone using a pay and display system.
They also want a short-term solution to turn a disused private site between High Street and Tower Road into a temporary car park but planning bureaucracy is preventing this from happening, despite the owner’s agreement.
Addressing complaints, Transport Malta representative Audrey Testaferrata de Noto, an architect and traffic expert, said the regulator was working on a traffic management and parking policy.
She hoped the draft policy will be ready next week and will be addressing issues that impact different localities and not just Sliema. She said the policy will be open for public consultation.
Former Sliema councillor Martin Debono, an architect, gave a presentation on how he envisaged a radical overhaul of the promenade that would mean reclaiming land to expand the shoreline, creating open spaces and parking boxes.