An agreement was signed on Monday between the Education Ministry and the St Paul's Bay council for the latter to run car park operations at the Qawra Primary School, eventually providing public access to the two-storey car park.

Public access to the car park was promised when the school was inaugurated more than two years ago.

The primary school opened its doors to students in 2020, after a three-year delay. It has an underlying car park that can host 400 vehicles, of which, 200 will be made available to the public.

But, in spite of the agreement, there is still no date as to when these spots will be accessible to the public or how much parking on the school grounds will cost.

The delay in making the car park available to the public had been criticised in the past, especially by Nationalist MP Graziella Galea, a former mayor and councillor at St Paul’s Bay. 

During Monday's signing, it was announced that the council will be managing the car park operations. 

'Long discussions'

Education Minister Clifton Grima described the agreement as “an important step forward for the locality".

He said it is important that the car park is safeguarded, and that opening it to the public will not have any negative effects on the school staff or the community. The council, he said, will ensure that the parking is not "abused".

When asked why the agreement had been so long in coming, Grima said it had been important to ensure that all the necessary measures were in place to prevent abuse.

Qawra is notorious for parking problems but the school car park had, to date, been out of bounds for locals. Photo: Jonathan Borg

Parking fee - but no indication of how much 

Mayor Alfred Grima said the next step for the council is now to obtain the necessary license to run a public car park. 

He told Times of Malta that the fee to use the car park will be subsidised "drastically" and will not reflect the actual costs to run the place. 

When asked when will the public be able to use it, he said it would be "irresponsible" to come up with a date when the council is still working to ensure the operation will run smoothly.