On Workers’ Day 2007, workers in Valletta were penalized by the CVA parking scheme. Yes, the CVA was introduced on l May 2007. If you visit the CVA website, they still boast it is intended to safeguard our heritage, to have clean clear air, to have more accessibility and to have easier parking. One year has passed and as a worker who works in Valletta and who spends twelve hours of the day in Valletta, I have noticed that parking has increased and that it is still difficult to find a parking space in Valletta.
This notwithstanding that it costs me €6.52 a day! I do not know if the CVA has produced any statistics, as to whether the aim of the CVA has been achieved (that is to protect Valletta), so it will not be amiss if any Member of our Parliament will put a parliamentary question to check if the number of vehicles entering Valletta has gone down, if the level of air pollution in Valletta has gone down, and the other two goals regarding accessibility and easier parking; we do not need the CVA to tell us this as we know that these two latter goals have definitely not been achieved.
The CVA had told us (source European Local Transport Information Service) that since the scheme was introduced there has been a 32% drop in the total number of individual cars visiting Valletta every day for any length of time, a 60% drop in car stays by non-residents of more than eight hours, and a marked increase of 32% in non-residential cars visiting the city for an hour or less. This proves what we always said: that the CVA is not an environmental measure but a measure to increase traffic in Valletta.
CVA bills are hefty and the penalties they impose for late payments are something out of this world. If you pay after one month from date of invoice, you get a penalty of 2%, if you pay after two months, you have a 4% increase and if you pay after three months you have a 100% penalty, in other words the amount due doubles. I do not know how this has been blessed by the Malta Financial Services Authority and how this is allowed by law, while at the same time we prosecute others for usury when they attempt to do something similar. It is possible that the Malta Financial Services Authority sees this perfectly within the financial legal ambit?
I tried to do away with the CVA by paying a yearly subscription at the Floriana car park but I am afraid the CT cab service over there leaves much to be desired. There is no service before 8 o’ clock in the morning and during the rush hours you do not stand a chance of being accommodated. This is what happens when you have only one service provider: you complain but your complaints disappear in thin air because have no competition.
So reluctantly, I have to make do with the CVA, which after more than 19 months in operation has failed to submit its audited accounts with the Registrar of Companies and it has failed to inform Parliament about the income it has received from our taxes. The CVA is supposed to be operated by the Malta Transport Authority but we are still kept in the dark as to what use is being made from the monies received by the CVA. I think we have the right to know whether Valletta will in any way benefit from the income that it is generated by the CVA.
I remember writing in this newspaper about the subject in June 2008, inducing the CVA to send me a smart executive to tell me that I ought to write to the appeals board requesting them to introduce a yearly membership. As member of the Chamber of Advocates, the Chamber made such request on behalf of all its members on 23rd June 2008.
More than 17 months later, we were informed through a letter from Dr Ian Micallef, as chairman of the CVA Board, saying that the law does not allow it to accede to my request. Naturally, such a letter was copied to Mr Franco Debono, policy manager at the transport ministry of Austin Gatt.
How cheeky it is for the law to prohibit the CVA Board from allowing Monti hawkers to park for free – and still they are allowed to so! What cheek for not allowing the staff at the Attorney General’s office to park for free either, so much so that when lately Minister Gatt and the Attorney General quarrelled over something, Gatt ordered that there be no more free parking for the staff of the Attorney General’s office, and this without any legal authority to do so.
So who is in charge – Minister Gatt or the CVA Board? We are very confused about the issue and we want to know who else is being exempted from paying for parking in Valletta. It is not fair for our MPs, who were the first to be granted this privilege, to neglect their constituents and not raise questions in Parliament as to who is in control of the CVA parking scheme in Valletta, and as to how much money the CVA is making and what is happening with this money.
We come to Valletta because our work takes us there and I do not see any reason why the board is hiding behind the law in not allowing the introduction of a yearly subscription. The Board ought to have had the courage to make recommendations to the Minister so that this scheme can be introduced because all it needs is the stroke of a pen by the minister without the need to go through Parliament. But only yes-persons make it to government boards, irrespective of the party in government!
The ADT, if it really has Valletta at heart, must make sure that parking spaces are no longer appropriated by private individuals. It has become a common site for persons to block parking spaces with a gas cylinder or a heavy object to block parking. ADT must make sure that the green and blue and white parking spaces are fluorescent in the night and not try to tax us even more when they expect people who go to Valletta at night and who are not familiar with the schemes, to take a torch with them and check the colour of the parking space before parking their car.
A case in point was last Saturday near St James Cavalier, where the wardens were prompt in giving tickets to drivers who parked near the Central Bank annexe. The place is pitch dark and ADT expects the drivers to know that the spaces over there are green, that is, meant only for Valletta residents. Of course there are signs, but these signs are so tiny and inconspicuous and intended only for the public not to notice.
In the meantime we keep on feeding the CVA with our money knowing that it is money down the drain!
Any comments?
If you wish your comments to be published in our Letters pages please click button below. Please write a contact number and a postal address where you may be contacted.
Download front page in pdf file format
All the interviews from Reporter on MaltaToday's YouTube channel.
Artists, art critics and friends unanimously gather to remember the impact and value of Ebba von Fersen Balzan’s work and her strong connection with the Maltese islands
One year has passed and as a worker who works in Valletta and who spends twelve hours of the day in Valletta, I have noticed that parking has increased and that it is still difficult to find a parking space in Valletta.
