Describing parking in Victoria as “a nightmare”, the Gozo Business Chamber wants the 700 planned underground car park spaces at the proposed school project to be made available primarily to government employees, with a shuttle minibus service to St Francis Square (TMID, 3 October).

A possible alternative idea, which could be implemented immediately rather than waiting three or more years for the school to be built, might be for a series of minibuses to collect civil servants from central points in outlying villages every morning, and take them back every night (or lunchtime). Each individual bus trip would free up to a dozen car park spaces in Victoria; it would ensure that government officers got to work on time and stayed there until finishing time.

Then – who knows? – if experiments with such a scheme proved successful, a similar service could be operated between the villages and Victoria for members of the public, and then the entire population might feel less need to rely totally on their cars to get them into town.

Sounds innovative, I know, but the system could run, say, on at least an hourly basis throughout the day, and even more frequently at peak times. We could call it “public transport”, or maybe a “bus service”.

Worth a try, surely.

Revel Barker

Ghajnsielem, Gozo