It’s a busy time at the Cirkewwa Marine Park. With tourism reaching its annual peak in these days, more local divers visiting and the space being what it is, divers are forced to find alternative ways to park on site. This normally results in the middle of the inner parking to be used as ad-hoc parking spaces for an additional few spaces.
On Friday 21/07/2023 the Cirkewwa Marine Park advised divers that LESA has recently warned divers on site at the inner parking area that parking in the middle will no longer be allowed and that vehicles parked there will receive a €140 fine. It also called for divers to make maximum use of the parking boxes and not setup kits on the road but rather on benches and pavements in the area. The Park also pledged that it’s working on finding a solution to this issue.
Local divers also reported that authorities have been asked time and again to dedicate an additional area to cater for the busy summer months, however this has not yet been taken up. Their latest proposal from May was as follows:
Area: Half of the length of the ferry wall area (marked with red in attached plan) to be turned into parking reserved for diver’s vehicles (schools and individuals), with similar restrictions as the existing reserved areas. Parking to be carried out in a fishbone manner to allow better use of the length of wall.
Limitation: May to October, except on Tuesdays (due to dangerous good ferry service) between 08:00 and 13:00.
Infrastructural changes: Signs affixed to the wall, and if possible, removal in this section of the unnecessarily high concrete lane separator and replacing with paint instead. Fishbone parking bays to be indicated using minimal markings in yellow.
We trust that such an arrangement would benefit all concerned parties due to better organisation of the area on busy days.
In summer, except for the occasional bad weather day, the current parking zone is too small for the increasingly successful site which is being turned into Malta’s first managed Marine Park, with the funding from the Malta Tourism Authority and in line with the Diving Strategy announced last year.
We trust that this proposed measure would improve the experience of divers on site, and make it safer due to the elimination of spillover haphazard parking. On the other hand, in the afternoon, the site would be returned to non-divers for parking (e.g. Gozitan workers) or if using the site for other recreational purposes.
Should this suggestion be considered favourably, we encourage you to pass it on to Transport Malta for consideration.
Emails from diving club to MTA/TM/Local Council sent in May 2023
So far however, no progress has been noted with regard to the above issue. It is yet to be seen how this development will affect visitors at the Cirkewwa Marine Park, which is the most visited diving site in Malta due to its pristine waters, abundance of marine life and diver facilities.
In the meantime, divers are encouraged to car-pool and make tight use of the oversized parking boxes in the zone (even though technically, that is a contravention too).
We hope that action by authorities is focused on supporting the marine park, which is already supported by the Malta Tourism Authority and forms part of the Diving strategy announced last year, on which we reported recently here.
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