Anna Mallia | Wednesday, 24 June 2009

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We all remember how much they tried to convince us that the Valletta Parking Scheme was meant to improve the residents’ quality of life; to enhance commercial activity; improve the general environment and appearance and reduce traffic in Valletta.
Now that the scheme has been around for over a year, I ask you if any of these objectives have been achieved. Parking in Valletta is still a problem; the appearance and upkeep of the city are still in a shabby state, and as for the quality of life of the residents, I am sure that they are inhaling more fumes than they did before the introduction of the parking scheme.
Let us be honest – this was not a parking scheme at all, and it is worse than a tax because love it or hate it, a tax goes to the country’s coffers. But in this case we are paying tariffs to the private sector, whose only qualification is that it is in the Minister’s good books. The CVA Technology Company Limited is getting rich at our expense, and the same goes for the CT cab.

The Minister has the discretion to give free vouchers; the local council managed to get a deal for the residents so that they get a discount on the CT cab tariffs; there is no rule on the issue of residence permits: in some cases they literally tear you apart with the documents that you have to produce to prove that you are residing in Valletta, whilst in other cases they give you the residence permit with no question asked. In some cases they exempt you from payment until your request for permit is decided and in other cases they do not.

We work in Valletta, too, and pay €6.52c daily to park in Valletta and €4 daily to park in Floriana, because the CT cab fare has increased from one to two euros each way, that is, by 100%. No wonder the Valletta Local Council managed to get a discounted fare to its residents.

I have nothing against these discounts and vouchers but it is not fair that we get to know about them through the grapevine. Everything is at the discretion of the Minister. Let us face it: this was nothing but a scam to accommodate everybody except the people who work or live in Valletta.

Before the scheme, there were no gimmicks: we all knew how much we had to pay to enter Valletta and the fee was standard for everybody except residents. Now we introduced a scheme where the man in the street, who has no contacts, has to pay the full fare and the other man in the street, who knows his way around, pays nothing or has the fee discounted.

There is no doubt that the CVA, the company sitting pretty doing nothing except receiving our money, is making loads and it is a pity how no MP has queried how much money the scheme has made since its introduction. Imagine if I kept the car in Valletta for the month of May (and not every day). I would receive a bill of €127.40c. This is daylight robbery because if exemptions are made for friends of friends, to Monti hawkers, to residents’ relatives, to doctors that practice regularly in Valletta, how is there no regulation as to the eligibility for these exemptions?

And another thing: why is the Minister allowed a number of exemptions – more than 200 if I am not mistaken, – which he can give to anybody without anything binding him as to the criteria for free parking in Valletta?

There is no doubt that blatant discrimination is taking place and nobody lifts a finger and tries to air our grievances, including those who like us have to go to Valletta for work. If the doctor is exempt because his patient lives in Valletta (and rightly so), why should the lawyer not be exempt since the Law Courts are in Valletta? The same applies to our members of Parliament: they are exempt because Parliament is in Valletta. But some work is more rewarding than others and the system is definitely discriminating between one worker and another.

I tried to convince CVA to give the people who work in Valletta a yearly subscription fee, and even the Chamber of Advocates made a similar attempt; but CVA denied the request saying that it was beyond them. But what I fail to understand is, how come other people manage to get discounts, exemptions and yearly subscriptions? For example, I know that people who do not live in Valletta, but who have to live with and attend to their ailing relatives daily, can get a yearly subscription at a very discounted rate.

I repeat that I have nothing against these discounts, but it is not fair that they are meant to be only for those who know their way around and the CVA does not publish the opportunities that exist for people to get a discounted fair.
Even if we do not park the car in Valletta and use the CT cab, nowadays there is not much difference in the price: if you park in Valletta you pay €6.52c and if you do not, you pay €4 for the CT cab, and the balance for the car park or the parker and so it works out to be practically the same time except that if you park in Valletta you save time, and have the car available all the time whereas with CT cab you have to wait and the service is not available all the time. Moreover the cabs are dangerous and I cannot understand how they passed the health and safety criteria because you risk finding yourself out of the car at every bend in Valletta.

If MPs get free parking, God bless them, but can they feel what the other workers feel when the CVA sends them a bill for working and generating income in Valletta? Can they ask, for our sake, how much money these two private companies have made at our expense, and how much of it has been paid to the government?
And also, has the number of cars entering Valletta decreased with the introduction of this new scheme? And what are the exemptions and how many of them are there at present? And who are the residents who qualified as residents?

The retailers do not complain about the scheme any more and it seems that, after all, it is business as usual. I am happy for them. What is sure is that we are seeing more commercial vans during rush hour than we did before and I would not be surprised if they have been given a concession to load and unload at nine o’ clock in the morning as well as over and above the ‘normal’ hours. If this is the case, why has it been kept hush hush?

We are paying good money for parking in Valletta and we do not want our money to go in the pockets of a couple of entrepreneurs literally for doing nothing, because they are not inputting anything for the embellishment of Valletta or for the improvement of parking. Secondly, we want to be treated like anybody else: if there are exemptions let them be applicable to everybody on an equal footing; if the criteria of residency has been extended to those who work in Valletta, let the extension be available to everybody who qualifies, and not only to those who are in the minister’s good books.
We deserve to be treated the same as the others!

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Water Services Corporation please note: last week a water pipe burst at Freedom Avenue, corner with St Rocco Street Zebbug, and when the neighbours called WSC, they were told that they will check... in the morning.
Then they tell us that every drop counts.

Bondiplus two Mondays ago was an advertisement for Corinthia Group, with Mr Pisani forgetting that the boom came to him in 1974 thanks to Labour whose leader at that time undermined tourism. It is no coincidence that the programme coincided with the issue of bonds by the Group, just as it was no coincidence that the programme of Joseph Calleja on Xarabank coincided with his concert in Malta in July: if such programmes are not considered as adverts by the Malta Broadcasting Authority, what is keeping the authority from issuing a press release telling us so?

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