Palermo, Parliament Square transformed into a car park

April 23, 2024, 06:53

2 min read

PALERMO – A ZTL camera turned off because it was repeatedly vandalized and the sign indicating the entrance to the pedestrian area removed. And so the pedestrian area of ​​Piazza Parliament, in Palermo, has become a public car park. A situation that has been going on for more than a year and which has pushed residents and citizens to request the restoration of the signs and cameras in Via Cadorna several times, without obtaining it.

Due to the missing sign, in fact, unauthorized persons enjoy the perfect trick to park with impunity in front of Palazzo dei Normanni. The municipal police, who have been asked to intervene several times, could not sanction vehicles that do not have authorization due to the lack of the appropriate sign. The result is that the UNESCO site is invaded daily by motor vehicles.

Reserved seats

Until 2014, Parliament Square hosted a car park for deputies and employees, shared by the Ars with the Southern Military Command which occupies the other wing of the Norman palace. To these was added a small quota reserved for the police headquarters. Then, since 2015, the ‘liberation’ of the square from cars: a condition that allowed the recognition of the Arab-Norman route as a UNESCO heritage site.

The testimonies

“It is no coincidence that vehicular traffic, thanks to the two shortcomings, has significantly increased,” say some workers in the area who, for fear of suffering unpleasant repercussions, prefer to remain anonymous. “There are stalls specifically reserved for those who have to enter the square and yet there are those who, even if unauthorized, still park in front of the Royal Palace”.

The recent opening of the elevated car park near the Children’s Hospital, with 140 parking spaces, certainly did not calm things down. “It costs 7 euros a day to park. It’s absurd that those who can afford to travel around in an SUV don’t have the decency to park their car there.”

“We have been asking for months for the sign to be restored and the camera turned back on but, to date, nothing has happened yet.” The only sign indicating that the area is pedestrian is in fact located at the exit of the square and with the camera in via Cadorna out of order the perfect conditions are created to “legitimately” disregard the transit ban and park illegally even in front of the Chapel Palatine.

Randazzo: “Increase controls”

“We raised and reported the issue to the competent offices asking to increase controls,” explains Antonino Randazzo, group leader of the M5s in the city council. “We believe it is absurd that this continuous violation of pedestrian areas continues undisturbed as happened in the past in Piazza San Domenico and Piazza Bologni. It is intolerable that this also happens in Parliament Square, in front of the Ars headquarters.” The Municipality has announced that checks will be intensified, also in the hope of “catching in the act” the vandals who repeatedly disable the camera in Via Cadorna.