Fees for parking inside Valletta should remain untouched until the new public transport system is in place and proven to encourage people to travel by bus to the capital, according to the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises – GRTU.
“Raising prices charged through the controlled vehicular access (CVA) system will make life more difficult for consumers to come to Valletta. Hopefully, and we’re keeping our fingers crossed, the new bus system will work and will attract more people to come to Valletta by bus,” GRTU director general Vince Farrugia said.
Mr Farrugia “completely disagreed” that CVA fees were too cheap, as described by Transport Minister Austin Gatt during a seminar organised by the Valletta Alive Foundation on Saturday. Dr Gatt said the CVA system was not working because of the law rates.
Figures released last year showed that Transport Malta paid CVA Technology Ltd €150,000 per month for the operation of the system. The government raked in €2.1 million from the CVA system between May 2007 and the end of August 2009.
Replying to a parliamentary question recently, Dr Gatt said there were almost 2,000 parking spots in Valletta. Of these, 1,414 were used by the public all day, 133 were reserved for residents and 413 could be used by the public between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. and by residents the rest of the time
Mr Farrugia said Valletta businesses were already suffering because of the reduced white parking spots in the city.
Increasing the price charged through the CVA system would discourage even more people from entering Valletta and spell disaster for the business community. The problem, he said, was the lack of parking and the cost in utilising the remaining places.
Many spots within Valletta were “eaten away” by the blue and green limited-parking bays and, more recently, parliamentarians “rudely” took over the core of Valletta as 70 parking spaces in Merchants Street and Market Square were reserved for them.
He said the GRTU was in regular talks with government on how to have more parking spaces in and around the capital and suggestions included more parking near the Phoenicia Hotel. One had to keep in mind there were plans to extend the private MCP car park outside City Gate.
The GRTU had even suggested moving the offices of ARMS Ltd – the government’s utilities billing branch – to the old market in Valletta to attract people.
John Ebejer, from Valletta Alive Foundation, did not wish to comment specifically about the CVA fees. He said he believed in an approach that offered choice between public and private transport together with an appropriate pricing mechanism for parking. “The closer you park to the centre, the more you pay,” he said.