Valletta is the administrative capital of Malta. In Valletta, one can find the palace of the President, Parliament, the law courts, many government departments and various embassies. In Valletta, one also finds the office of various professional firms. Valletta is considered an important commercial hub, especially in view of the fact it is well served by the public transport system. It is also the chosen place of residence of many families although the residential population of Valletta has been steadily decreasing over the years.
Like all other cities in Europe, the central commercial/administrative area of Valletta is dead after 7 p.m. However, the peripheral residential and entertainment areas of Valletta remain very much alive during the night.
The administrative/commercial area of Valletta is slowly expanding as a consequence of which it is pushing families out of the residential areas. To make matters worse, a large amount of the properties used for residential purposes lack the necessary amenities required for today’s standard of living.
The government has now embarked on a series of urban regeneration projects meant to upgrade Valletta, the major one being the redevelopment of the area around City Gate, Freedom Square and the ruins of the Royal Opera House. However, once again, this is a project on the periphery of the city, which will do little to inject activity during the night in the centre of Valletta.
One consequence of this project is that a new traffic management scheme needs to be introduced because this project will eliminate the main vehicular access into Valletta over City Gate. Furthermore, as a consequence of this and other projects, the parking space inside Valletta has been drastically reduced. This project will also be accompanied by the relocation of the present central bus terminus and the introduction of a new public transport system. According to the new system, Valletta will no longer be considered as a central hub but as a hub together with other terminals spread all over the island.
The loss of parking spaces in Valletta has been remedied to some extent by means of the park-and-ride service, which, to date, is provided free of charge. The park- and-ride scheme is accompanied by the controlled vehicular access (CVA) scheme for parking in Valletta, which imposes a time-based tariff on whoever uses the parking spaces within the capital.
However, it is admitted by everyone that the CVA scheme has not worked, one of the reasons being that while it provides some 1,800 parking spaces there are about 11,000 vehicles that are CVA exempt.
It has now been announced that the park-and-ride service will be provided by the new public transport operator at a daily charge of €2.50 while it is also being proposed to increase the CVA tariff. At the same time, since Valletta will no longer be a central hub for public transport, it will be much easier for people to shop from other commercial areas than from Valletta because new transport connections will be introduced between the villages and other commercial areas.
In this scenario, one may easily foresee what is bound to happen.
Since the parking problem is bound to increase there will be many offices and commercial outlets which would move out of Valletta to places where parking facilities are more easily accessible both for their employees as well as for their clients. Thus, commercial and professional establishments will slowly vacate the central area of Valletta as has previously happened with residents. The places that will be vacated will remain empty since they cannot function as residences unless the government comes up with plans for alternative uses.
The steady decrease in the residential population of Valletta would be accompanied by a steady decrease in commercial activity. Unless these problems of traffic management and parking are resolved it will not be long before Valletta would be a dead city.
The author is the main opposition spokesman on infrastructure and capital projects.