About two hours before the start of the fifth silent protest against the use of parking meters at City Hall, Town Clerk, Royston King, on Tuesday swore in approximately 60 parking meter attendants.These individuals are staff of Smart City Solutions (SCS), the company that was granted the concession by City Hall to implement the new parking system.
The new officers, who were trained by SCS with help from the City Constabulary Department, have the powers to arrest those who are non-compliant with the rules for using the meters.
The traffic wardens will be stationed at strategic points across the parking meter zone to render help to users of the meters. Their training continues to be in progress in terms of the use of weapons.
The Town Clerk challenged the new attendants to display a high-level of discipline and to deliver an “excellent” service to customers.
Chief Constable Andrew Foo, who was also present at the ceremony, encouraged the wardens to remain firm but friendly and courteous since they are dealing with a new initiative; one that is not fully accepted by the public and that may attract hostility.
Meanwhile, despite enormous criticism from various stakeholders across the country, City Hall has gone ahead and resumed the operation of the meters with slight adjustments to the rates and implementation structure.
Currently, the cost to park for an hour is $200 plus VAT, but those who are parking for eight hours or more will be granted a 50 per cent reduction. Any motorist paying for four hours of metered parking will automatically be credited with eight hours of metered parking.
Furthermore, rather than paying for a space for an amount of time, motorists will instead be paying for parking time for their cars. This essentially means that motorists may purchase any amount of parking time and then move from any metered parking space to any other metered parking space anywhere in the city for time purchased on a single parking ticket until its expiry.
Among other changes are that an enforcement grace period of 15 minutes will be introduced, meaning that no clamping will be conducted until at least 15 minutes after expiry of a parking ticket receipt.
There will be no immobilisation fee penalty for a one-month adjustment period.
During this one-month period, vehicles that are immobilised for non-payment of metered parking fees, will be required to pay only the metered parking fee for the time that they were immobilised and nothing else.
For six months (after expiry of the one-month adjustment period), the immobilisation fee will be reduced by 50 per cent or $4000 plus VAT. The fee will be restored to $8000 after the six months.
Among other “special considerations” are that businesses may apply for monthly parking permits which may be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Businesses may apply for loading/offloading parking regulations, and official taxis and minibuses may purchase metered parking monthly passes for $12,000 per month, plus VAT. Residents may also apply for residential parking permits.
