Wake up GCC!
Mmegi Editor | Thursday May 7, 2015 15:29
Other motorists who were visiting had to part ways with their hard earned cash to reclaim their vehicles.
The police confirmed that they towed over 50 vehicles and charged the owners fines. While it is common knowledge that some motorists in town are careless with their driving, and the way they park their cars. But these people are faced with a painful reality of shortage of parking space. The majority of workers have resorted to using private vehicles because of the poor state of our public transport, which can be purely classified as a sham.
There are close to 300,000 vehicles registered in the country, most of which are used by workers and business operators on a daily basis. Some of these commuters drive to the city from surrounding villages and need parking space for hours.
Law enforcement officers know very well that the city centre is not coping with the volume of vehicles that pass through, or need parking space on daily basis. Parking has become a nightmare.
It is therefore important for the city council to come up with new plans to address this problem. GCC should build parkades around this area to ensure motorists are catered for, and the council raise the much-needed funds. The authorities should also encourage business owners around this area to erect parking meters so that motorists can start paying for parking space in the city. Often we hear of the GCC complaining about central government cutting the council budget, leading to the local authority failing to carry out developmental projects. Faced with that, it would have been expected for the civic leadership to be creative, and find ways of fund raising to meet the city’s demands. And parkades could just be one of the answers.
Many cities around the world do have paid-for parking spaces in congested areas, and the same can be done here. On a regular basis, scores of GCC employees are reported to be going on benchmarking missions abroad. The GCC has also partnered with several municipalities in the region and abroad, and it should learn from such partnerships. Another approach that could be adopted is the Public and Private Partnership for the construction of parkades, or the erection of paid-for parking space. As short-term intervention, the government should work hard and assist the private sector to set up a well-organised public transport system of higher standards, or our roads will continue to be congested and parking space becomes a scarce commodity.
Today’s thought
“I believe we need to attract a new generation of the best and brightest to public service and I believe that government can be a source of inspiration, not degradation.”
-Andrew Cuomo