Formentera expands metred parking to Es Pujols, Sant Ferran and Sant Francesc

Aparcament la savina premsaThe Formentera Council Office of Mobility reports that from this summer, local motorists can expect to find metred parking in es Pujols, Sant Ferran and Sant Francesc. As published today in the country's official gazette, the Boletino Oficial del Estado, the Council has begun taking steps to purchase parking metres with an eye to installing them in the first half of 2018. The system is expected to be in use and fully operational in the three towns by July 1 of this year.

Trial run in la Savina
When the Council launched metred parking in la Savina back in 2015, it was the first of its kind on the island. Previously at the whim of chronic parking shortages, the town has largely seen the problem reversed. The experiment's success propelled the decision to replicate the scheme in other towns on the island that are similarly squeezed by parking crunch.

The task of patrolling the new metred spots in winter will fall to a three-person brigade of parking attendants and in summer their ranks will swell to 16. As laid out in the Council's 2018 budget, members of the brigade will be employed by the municipality and contracted by the Council.

Meetings will be held with neighbourhood associations in each town to explain the particulars of the project in each case.

Consell d'Entitats
Today the metred parking scheme, known as pàrquing regulat in Catalan, reflects the same model that was presented before the island's citizen participation entity (Consell d'Entitats) in 2014 and 2015. Many of the group's gatherings over the years have focused on the goal of cutting the number of vehicles in circulation on the island, particularly in summer.

Discussions at Consell d'Entitats meetings succeeded in generating a range of new proposals. Though some, like collecting information on vehicles that enter the island, fall under the authority of the Govern balear, others, such as regulating parking in urban areas, are within the Council's purview. In that regard, the planned expansion of the scheme is as much about optimising how people park as it is encouraging them to drive less.