Sliema council laments loss of parking spaces due to car sharing programme

GoTo Malta car sharing insist they met with mayor and no objections had been raised

While the Sliema local council has lamented not being consulted on a national car sharing scheme, the company running it said it met with the town's mayor, who had raised no objections
While the Sliema local council has lamented not being consulted on a national car sharing scheme, the company running it said it met with the town's mayor, who had raised no objections

The Sliema local council has said highlighted its concern at the upcoming launch of a national car sharing programme, lamenting the fact that this will lead to the loss of 20 parking spaces in the busy town.

The local council said it had not been consulted on the scheme - GoTo Malta car sharing - and was worried that its residents would be losing even more parking spaces than they already had previously.

“Whilst understanding the positive attributes of car sharing, the Sliema local council protests on the manner in which this project has been implemented, without proper consultation with the council. Had Transport Malta, or the private entity [running the scheme] effectively engaged with the council, the council would have been perfectly placed to give advice on how the car sharing spaces may be allocated with the least possible detrimental effects on residents’ parking spaces,” it said.

“Unfortunately, this endemic lack of consultation, will further the problem already experienced because of lack of parking spaces in Sliema, following the amassing of such spaces with tables and chairs, and the discrimination being posed on Sliema by the government which is not allowing the council to implement a residential parking scheme,” it added.

GoTo insist they met Sliema mayor, no objections raised

In a response to the Sliema local council’s statement,  Car Sharing Services Malta, which runs the GoTo car sharing scheme, said that company CEO Liran Golan met with the town’s mayor Anthony Chircop in April, and had explained how the island’s first national car sharing scheme would be operating.

“No objection to this initiative was ever raised by the local council, until now,” a spokesperson for the company said

The company, a subsidiary of CAR2GO Israel, won the concession contract to run the service following an international public call by the transport authority, the company pointed out.

“Transport Malta has over the past two years informed local councils across Malta and Gozo that this scheme would be was in the pipeline and that their collaboration was required to ensure it was a success,” it said.

“The €8 million initiative, run in collaboration with Transport Malta, forms part of the government’s vision to introduce innovative transportation modes, reduce dependency on private cars and contribute towards Malta’s target to have 5,000 electric vehicles on the road by 2020,” it added.