The Private Sector Commission (PSC) today signaled it full support for the Movement Against Parking Meters and once again called for the Government to utilise its powers to ensure that the controversial parking meter contract be quashed.
In a press release issued earlier today, the PSC stated that “no reductions in rate or other adjustment to the arrangements will resolve or address the unconscionable nature of this contract”.
“The PSC believes that something was very much amiss in the binding acquiescence of the City’s officials with a contract that cedes monopoly control of the City’s real estate to a company of dubious origin. The fact that there was no public tendering, public consultation or impact study, as we have expressed before, has informed this view”, the statement added.
On this basis, the body has issued a call for the Government to immediately constitute a Commission of Inquiry to examine the “questionable manner in which this contract was constituted and awarded”.
Over the past few weeks there has been mounting pressure for the authorities to scrap the parking meter project with hundreds of persons taking to the streets in the city to voice their concerns regarding the manner in which the project was conceived and implemented.
So far the authorities have announced that the parking fees are to be reduced by 50% with certain conditions, but various stakeholders; including the business community and the Parliamentary Opposition have called for the project to be scrapped in its entirety.
Park the meters!