MP Franco Galea filed a protest in court, in which he said he was a director of St George’s Hotel Ltd, whose property is in Paceville. He said that part of the land is used as a private car park for employees.

It is closed off by two gates and there are also signs to indicate that it is a parking zone and also a tow zone.

Mr Galea said that although it was clearly indicated that the area was a private car park, cars were constantly blocking the entrance. He said that wardens in the Paceville area were not doing their job and calling for tow trucks to remove the illegally-parked vehicles.

Mr Galea said that the wardens were not taking action to effectively deal with such flagrant disregard of parking regulations. The last straw, he said, was when he once parked behind a car that was blocking the gate and when he called the wardens to issue a fine or take some other action, he was the one who was summoned to a tribunal instead.

In addition, Mr Galea complained, he had to resort to parking on the pavement in front of the gate to at least allow his employees access to the parking area. He said the pavement itself was privately owned, but he still gets fined every time he does this.

The situation was ridiculous, said Mr Galea – so ridiculous that when he has to go to the tribunals, he cannot even get his car out of his own reserved parking area because, inevitably, it will be blocked by a car.

Mr Galea appealed for Guard and Warden Ltd to ensure that entrance to the parking area is not blocked. Dr Joe Giglio signed the protest.