Two parking bays in St Paul Street are no longer reserved for ministerial cars and have been returned to Valletta residents.
My staff were completely unaware and surprised at the developments
Transformed into yellow reserved bays on Friday, the loss of two parking spaces immediately triggered the anger of residents who complained to the council, which said it was not consulted.
Mayor Alexiei Dingli said yesterday the two bays were painted over in the morning and had now become green boxes, reserved for Valletta residents.
The two spaces, next to the church in St Paul Street, were painted yellow on Friday morning, with signs set up reserving one for Parliamentary Secretary for Justice Owen Bonnici and the Permanent Secretary for the Economy Ministry, which falls under Chris Cardona.
Both ministries had denied requesting the parking slots and insisted they did not belong to them.
Dr Bonnici said yesterday he was informed about the parking bays when The Times sent questions to the Office of the Prime Minister.
“My staff were completely unaware and surprised at the developments in question.”
The Parliamentary Secretary said he wrote at once to the mayor, explaining his position and advised him to consider switching it back to residential parking status.
Dr Bonnici said he had been parking in Republic Street, in the areas reserved for MPs, since he took office and would continue parking there until the council identified a parking bay, “which respects better the residents’ exigencies”.
“I had spent the initial five years of my political career serving in a local council and I understand perfectly the concerns relating to residential parking,” he said.
Dr Dingli said there were still a number of bays reserved for ministers, in Independence Square for example, which need to be discussed with Transport Malta.
Transport Malta said it allocated five parking bays per ministry – for the minister, his personal assistant, parliamentary secretary and another for his assistant and permanent secretary.
“Because of new exigencies of the new Government, it was decided that two new parking spaces are needed. The request is assessed according to Transport Malta’s policy,” a spokesman said.
The council was aware of the policy because local councils were consulted when it had been drafted, the spokesman added.
However, Dr Dingli argued this policy had not been put in place in the previous legislature, especially after the Government had reviewed the parking spaces system in 2008. Ministries previously used to have an average of two parking spaces each.
Five reserved parking spaces allocated to each ministry in Valletta “is a lot when compared with the huge parking problem,” Dr Dingli added.