The Court of Appeal yesterday confirmed that a decision by a local council to reserve particular zones for residential parking was beyond the powers of the council.
The court heard that Joseph and Maria Victoria Borg had been summoned to defend a contravention on the basis that she had parked, without authorisation, in a reserved zone in Pietà. Although it was her husband who had been driving the car, Mrs Borg had been found guilty and fined Lm20 for the contravention.
She had been forced to pay the fine, under protest, in order to renew her car licence.
Mrs Borg argued that the registration of the fine was null and void as there was no law that provided for payment in order to park in a reserved zone.
The Local Councils Act empowered the councils to maintain the roads and road markings and to provide for pedestrians and parking. But the law did not empower the councils to reserve zones solely for residents' parking.
The couple argued that St Luke's Hospital was situated in the locality and it received patients and visitors from all over the country. It was, therefore, impossible for the Pietà council to reserve zones for residents to the detriment of the other inhabitants of the country.
The first court had said that one could sympathise with the residents of Pietà who always encountered parked cars owned and driven by persons from outside their town. Residents of Valletta and Mdina had the same problem, as did Gozitans.
However, the court could not ignore the problem faced by the ordinary citizen who would be fined if he parked in Valletta and then be fined when he went to any other locality because of reserved parking zones. The same citizen would then return to his own home town, where no reserved parking zones existed, and find he could not park due to cars owned by residents of other localities.
If such a situation were allowed to continue there would no longer be Maltese citizens but some 60 countries representing each locality. Therefore, there had to be rules regulating parking in all areas or none at all.
The court added that the Local Councils Act authorised the councils to enact bye-laws. However, such bye-laws could not give rise to preferential treatment.
The creation of reserved parking zones could be justified as a security measure, or on humanitarian grounds, but in this case the Pietà council had given an advantage to its residents over the interests of other citizens of the country.
The first court found that the imposition of a reserved parking zone for Pietà residents was beyond the powers given to the local council. It also annulled the Lm20 fine imposed on Mrs Borg.
Pietà local council then appealed to the Court of Appeal presided over by Chief Justice Vincent Degaetano, Mr Justice Joseph A. Filletti and Mr Justice Geoffrey Valenzia.
On appeal, the court noted that contrary to the council's allegations, no permit for the residents' scheme had been issued by the Public Transport Authority. The council had not even applied for such permit before implementing the scheme. Nor had the council issued any bye-law to implement it.
The council had acted ultra vires its powers at law for although the law did contemplate controlled parking schemes these could only be implemented with the consent of the public authorities and not merely by a council decision.