(Trinidad Express) By the end of the year, parking on the streets of Port of Spain will no longer be free.
Port of Spain Mayor Louis Lee Sing made the announcement on Monday at a meeting at City Hall, Port of Spain.
The new plan will utilise a device from a company called Easy Park.
“We are going to give out 50,000 of these, free of charge, to those who want to park in the city. After the first 50,000 there will be a fee for it. You will go to the lottery vendors like you go for a top-up and when you top it up, you place it on your dashboard,” Lee Sing said.
“Our traffic wardens will come around with a little gizmo and swipe, if they swipe and your Easy Park is empty, no problem, they will merely call the booth and they will come and clamp it there. You will get a sticker on your driver’s window indicating that your vehicle has been immobilised, urging you to go to City Hall to pay the fee. The fee will be a reasonable fee,” Lee Sing said.
He added, “If you are parking in the central business district, or on Ariapita Avenue, or one of these demand areas, the rate will be a little higher than if you are parking higher up on Henry or Charlotte Street. We estimate that the revenue collected from this will go a long way towards enhancing and making Port of Spain a better city.”
Lee Sing said for too long the city has been plagued with illegal and uncaring parking and that this practice posed a threat to the development of Port of Spain.
“The city is taking steps to address the wildness associated with parking. To date no citizen has ever paid for parking on the street of Port of Spain. It is proposed that within the shortest possible time we will introduce paid parking across the city,” he said.
The new strategy will recognise the needs of the differently-abled.
The mayor said two specially-marked parking spaces will be made available on every block for this group of users.
