Public: Parking meters a must!
By Terresa McCall
Reporter-SKNVibes.com
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Lincoln David
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BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE current parking situation coupled with problems experienced by members of the public have fuelled a call for parking meters to be mounted in the Basseterre area, especially on Fort Street.
Sometime ago it was instituted that between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. persons are allowed to park on the eastern side of Fort Street for 30-minute intervals while no parking is allowed on the western side.
Regularly, police officers and traffic wardens can be seen patrolling the area to ensure that drivers obey the Federation’s traffic laws. However, complaints have been voiced by members of the public claiming that there are several loopholes in the current parking system and also the system used to police the area.
SKNVibes took to streets to get the public’s opinion on the erection of parking meters and whether or not this measure would serve to eliminate most loopholes in the current parking and relative systems.
Lincoln David opined that while it is not impossible for police officers to patrol the area, parking meters would be more “effective and
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Vicki Hanley
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efficient”.
“It’s not impossible for police to keep track of the vehicles parked on Fort Street because they have the means of doing so, but, at the same time, parking meters are a form of revenue.
At least there would be money coming in which would be used to maintain the streets. Even though it’s not impossible for police to walk back and forth, it’s more effective and efficient for parking meters to be mounted on Fort Street.
If parking is restricted to some limited, at least there should have something to measure that time. Even though the police would be able to do an accurate assessment, there are always loopholes for people to argue in court, so meters would be good.”
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Jaslyn Taylor
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Another individual, Jaslynn Taylor, expressed that the use of parking meters should have been implemented since the parking restrictions were imposed, but better late than never.
“If the Traffic is going to start something about keeping tabs on people parking on Fort Street, it is high time that they do it properly once and for all. This nonsense about traffic wardens walking around with a piece of paper writing down people’s time is a primary school thing and they should get their business right and for all.”
Making her contribution to the issue, Vicki Hanley told SKNVibes that there are defined loopholes in the current parking system which the implementation of marking meters would address.
“I think having parking meters would be better because the police don’t know when someone parks there and they could just come
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Smith
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and decide that this person is here for half an hour and give a ticket.
With the parking meter now, there is the time and everything on it and if you want to stay a little longer, you put in the required money.
If the police come and they realise that you over-park and you are not paying the money, then they can ticket you. Also, I believe parking meters would eliminate all of this thing about police and wardens taking out their personal feeling against people. A man told me that he got a ticket the other day and he feels that it was personal.”
A male, who chose to remain anonymous, phonated that he is aware of instances where persons were parked on the eastern side of Fort Street for less than the allotted 30 minutes and were still ticketed. He further stated that not only would parking meters deal with this issue, but it would also be a source of revenue for the government.
~~Adz:Left~~ “I think we should get parking meters because I have seen situations where officers give people tickets when they have been parked in a particular spot for 20 minutes, but they maintain that they have been there for longer than that…and that is wrong. Parking meters would eliminate that and government would be making an honest income.”
“Sometimes people park over the half hour and sometimes they don’t, but if a police means to give you a ticket, you will get a ticket. Parking meters would help to make sure that persons park for the time they are suppose to park and, if not, then they pay,” Smith declared.
This media house also spoke with the Head of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force’s Traffic Department, Inspector Venetta Wyatt, and expressed to her the concerns and opinions of persons interviewed. In her response, Wyatt noted that she can’t say when parking meters would be implemented but in the interim, the police are doing the best they could.
“We all would like to see parking meters. I can’t say when parking meters would be coming on stream but we all would like to see it. With respect to the effectiveness of the police officers, we are doing the best we can. I do not see my officers as being spiteful. I just see my officers as doing their work in the circumstances.”
