St Paul’s Bay, Qawra and Buġibba are littered with reserved parking spaces, most of which were allocated without the necessary permits and many given as personal favours to certain individuals. Over the many years, this has been clear for all to see.

There are also a substantial number of spaces ‘reserved’ for the loading and unloading of goods, however, certain businesses abuse these spaces, by using them as their own private parking bays or a display bay for rented cars, thereby forcing delivery vehicles to park in the middle of the road, obstructing the traffic flow while others have been granted time limited parking bays specifically reserved outside their shops. Equality has not been on the mind of the abusers when these favours were dished out.

The same applies to some hotels that have been blessed with 11 metre long reserved spaces so as to accommodate coaches and allow the safe dis/embarkation of the hotel guests. These spaces were granted by the authorities some years ago to all hotels in Malta, but unfortunately some are used by the hotel owners/management as their own private spaces, thereby forcing the transport provider to drop off or pick up their guests in the middle of the road and often into oncoming traffic instead of onto the pavements. The relevant and including the Local Authorities should ensure that these spaces are kept free to be used for the purpose for which they were granted and encourage all transport to park the right way so that the vehicle door is at the pavement ensuring that the safety of the guests are placed first and foremost and above that of the privileged few!

I urge the new council to carry out a review of all these permits as soon as possible and ensure that all businesses are treated equally and that these reserved spaces are used in accordance with the permits issued. The Local Council should also identify reserved spaces that have never been agreed to and ensure that all the renewed permits are issued lawfully and according to needs and not as “personal favours to individuals” as has happened even in the recent past.

Residents / businesses should not be granted personal favours but assisted to get all that is theirs by law while safety should not be compromised for the many to please the few.

Charles Micallef

Qawra