Pressure is mounting on the transport authorities to scrap car park attendants following a violent incident last week.

“Why do we need these so-called parkers? Most of them are useless, and everyone knows that they threaten you when you don’t pay up for using a free and public space,” Jackie Vassallo, a Times of Malta reader, said to this newspaper.

She was one of dozens of motorists to express this sentiment while sharing a report by this newspaper about a driver who was allegedly beaten by a parker in Qawra last Saturday.

Mitch Farrow, 59, a British expat who recently underwent hip replacement surgery and was diagnosed with prostate cancer, was left with two black eyes and heavy bruising after the attendant at the car park outside the Santana Hotel in Qawra allegedly beat him for not offering a gratuity.

Read: British expat beaten after refusing to pay Qawra parker

Parking in public car parks is free, and signs erected by the transport authority clearly state that tipping attendants there should only be done on a voluntary basis.

Despite this, many motorists reacted to the story by saying they felt obliged to give gratuities to attendants.

“At the end of the day you’re leaving your car there with them. I’ve heard stories of people who refused to pay and came back to find flat tyres or worse. I just pay to avoid this, but why should I have to?” wrote Eric Cachia, another reader.

Several motorists complained on social media of being “harassed” or “bullied” into paying gratuities to parkers. Others said, meanwhile, that certain car parks came with an unofficial price tag.

“I park in the Sliema car park near the ferries every day, and they ask for €2 every time; it’s like it’s the accepted fee,” reader Sonia Ellul said.

The Times of Malta visited this Sliema car park yesterday, and while the attendant there did ask for €2, he did not insist when payment was refused. There are currently some 50 licensed car park attendants working on the island, and although they are not employed or paid by Transport Malta, the authority does have the power to revoke or suspend their licences.

Yesterday this newspaper reported how the authority had indeed suspended the Qawra attendant’s licence. However, when asked whether car park attendants would be done away with altogether, both the authority and the Transport Ministry were vague.

Both said that “the future of the parker system has been in discussion for some time”. The results of these discussions and the possible options being explored were not disclosed.