Residents want parking zones, Sliema council to take legal action

The Sliema local council has announced it will take legal action against the ministry for transport after the council was stopped from running its own residential parking scheme back in 2013 a few days into its introduction.

In a survey carried out for the council by Misco, the council said that 72% of 300 residents questioned on the parking scheme for the over-populated town were in favour of reserved zones.

19% said they were against while 4% said they didn’t know whether they were in favour or against, while another 4% were indifferent.

Respondents were also asked to provide a rating from 1 to 10 to establish how favourable they were towards the residential parking scheme, delivering an average rating of 7.25.

Of those in favour, 98% said they were in favour because it facilitates parking problems. Of those against, 43.9% said the scheme created problems for visitors, while 30% said it was a problem for commercial sector, and 19.3% said that two hours was too restrictive.

The scheme was first given the green light in 2009 when the government, through Legal Notice LN200/2009, paved the way for the Sliema local council to introduce a residential parking scheme.

The council had decided to introduce the scheme in five stages, to make the transition easier for both residents and visitors. The first stage was launched in May 2013, in the area around the local council office.

Mayor Anthony Chircop said that, immediately upon the scheme’s introduction, a number of teachers from schools in the area started complaining.

"These teachers were the only ones who complained; everyone else had shown support for the scheme. The MUT (Malta Union of Teachers) had even threatened strike action and yet, when we met, they showed hardly any knowledge whatsoever about the scheme and how it worked," Chircop aid.

In June 2013, just weeks after the scheme was introduced, the transport ministry issued Legal Notice LN157/2013, in which it revoked the right of the Sliema local council to introduce and implement a residential parking scheme.

“All the other councils who had introduced similar parking schemes, were not affected by this legal notice. Only Sliema was discriminated against,” said Chircop.

"As for the ministry, we have waited for years, hopeful that some action would be taken – as promised – to address this issue. Now, we think we have waited enough and suffered this discrimination for long enough."