Feltre, stop at the first half hour for free in the blue car parks

The seven-month “bonus” for parking in the center ended with the holidays. Sacchet: “Extraordinary measure but in the future it could become structural”

FELTRE. After seven months of exemption, the first half hour of parking in the blue stalls in the city has returned to payment. In short, with the end of the Christmas holidays, the “parking bonus” also closed.

January 6 was the last day scheduled for the measure suggested by the conference of group leaders (the body that hosts the representatives of the majority and minority groups) and unanimously adopted by the city council with the Covid fund among the actions introduced to help , as far as possible, citizens and businesses in the phase of the pandemic.

This is an intervention that cannot be extended further.

Parking thirty minutes without paying the ticket was a way to boost the attractiveness of the city, giving time to do quick errands, such as getting bread or buying something in the shops. A way to revive consumption in commercial establishments marked by the socio-economic consequences resulting from the coronavirus emergency, but also to meet motorists.

After the positive experience of 2020, the half hour of free parking – once a day for each plate – was introduced at the end of May 2021 with a provision initially up to 30 September and then extended by another three abundant months (October, November, December and early January), thus including the Christmas shopping period up to Epiphany.

From an economic point of view, the Municipality has allocated 70,000 euros from the Covid fund (40,000 euros for the summer period from June to September, to which another 30,000 were added when the provision was renewed).

“It was an extraordinary measure,” underlines the president of the city council Manuel Sacchet. “It was possible to adopt it thanks to the availability of national transfers for Covid and the operation was well received by citizens in particular and also by the economic activities of the center. It would become difficult to make it structural with the ordinary budget, especially at this time when there are still repercussions related to Covid, as seen in the folds of the budget. However, it is not certain that in the future this measure cannot also become structural, perhaps when we get out of this situation, as we hope ».

“The initiative of the first half hour of free parking has certainly had a good response both from the citizens and from the shops, offices and so on”, reiterates Manuel Sacchet. “In a difficult time, the intent was to facilitate the use of the city center.”

Now the money available to the Municipality thanks to the Covid fund has all been committed. “We have come full circle”, comments Sacchet, who takes the opportunity to recall the reopening of the call with broadened criteria to assign scholarships to university students in difficult economic conditions due to the pandemic. The new deadline is Monday 17.