Sliema residents starved of parking spaces are worried after learning they will lose a dozen more slots to a government-led embellishment project aimed at improving access and aesthetics in Annunciation Square.

The square will be paved and traffic flow redirected in a Transport Ministry project that falls just short of pedestrianisation.

While residents and the local council have welcomed the embellishment, the new reconfiguration of parking spaces will mean 12 fewer of them, they say.

A Transport Ministry spokesperson had a slightly different figure but he said the parking configuration in the square was not up to standard and that four spaces had already been removed because they were too close to corners.

“According to Planning Authority Policy DC15, the current parking management goes against the policy due to traffic safety regulations. Therefore, parking spaces will now be slanting to be in conformity with this policy, thus reducing parking spaces from 30 to 20.”

Sliema, a hub of business and leisure activity, has no parking scheme for residents, who have a daily struggle trying to find a vacant slot.

One resident, Elaine Mulcahy, said a petition with 350 signatures opposing the project was presented to the ministry during the application process and about 95 representations have also been submitted.

“While we welcome any upgrades and improvement, we are used to optimising space for parking and strongly suggest that the parking situation remains the same,” Sliema mayor Anthony Chircop told Times of Malta.

The council is in discussions with the authorities about the project even though it already has a permit.

Chircop said the issue of parking would continue to resurface until a permanent solution for Sliema residents was found.

A planned residential parking scheme had met with protests a few years ago and had to be cancelled.

“We have been totally forgotten,” Chircop said. “Over the years, newer and larger apartment blocks have gone up, traffic has increased, there are more shops and catering establishments extend their premises onto pavements and parking spaces.

“We are promised reviews and national plans. So it is not just 12 parking spaces that stir up residents, the situation compounds.”