Paid parking is returning to Veles. At its last session the Veles municipal council adopted a decision on public car parks of municipal significance, starting the procedure for reintroducing charges.

Except that the municipal secretary immediately applied the necessary brake to the enthusiasm.

"Adopting this decision does not mean paid parking in Veles automatically starts tomorrow. It is a step in preparing the introduction of paid parking in the future", said Panche Janev.

The numbers

According to the register drawn up, a total of 963 parking spaces are envisaged in Veles - 173 in zone A, 581 in zone B and 209 in zone C. That total also includes 100 spaces in the underground multi-storey garage, which is still under construction.

So of the 963 spaces, a hundred do not exist. That is normal for a planning decision, but worth knowing as you read it.

For now there will be no charge for parking on sections of Blagoj Gjorev street, from Avona downwards, and 8 Septemvri, from the Post Office to the Clock - the spots where hundreds of cars park in the third lane every day. The reason is that these are regional roads, and the situation is meant to stay that way until the bypass towards Chashka is built.

The objection raised by a councillor

Aneta Staikj welcomed the decision but pointed to something that is not a formality: a great deal of room is being left for decisions to be taken by the public enterprise Park, Sport and Parking.

"The management board adopts the rulebooks on managing and using the car parks and on prices by itself, not the Council. That was the case in the municipality of Centar in Skopje. In practice, the board will decide on its own about resident parking, what documentation is required, about clamping vehicles and about parking for people with disabilities", Staikj said.

Council president Daniel Janevski responded that all rulebooks drawn up by the management board will be submitted to the Council, which will decide on their validity.

The difference between those two positions is the difference between who decides the price and who decides whose vehicle gets clamped.

This has happened once already

The decision on paid parking in Veles was adopted in December 2020. The system ran for around six months, and in April 2022 it was suspended - because of financial losses in its operation.

Six months of operation, then four years of pause. If a system was once scrapped because it did not pay for itself, then the question facing every councillor is simple: what is different this time?

The answer to that question is, for now, in neither the decision nor the announcements. And no specific start date for charging has been set.