Increased checks in the old city during the tourist season

Increased monitoring in Chania during the tourist period, and especially in the old city, was agreed on at a meeting at the Town Hall on Tuesday 4th April. With the tourist season about to begin, the Municipality of Chania had invited representatives from the trade and business community and professionals in the old city, as well as from the Police, the Traffic Police and the Harbour Authority.

Among the issues discussed were those of supplies to shops and restaurants, parking by permanent residents, and traffic management. The meeting also discussed the subject of begging, which it was noted is no longer an offence as of 2018.

The representative of the Tourist Police made particular reference to street musicians. He said that there was a gap in the law, but appeared positive about the phenomenon, saying that street musicians “are a fine sight”. He suggested that pitches should be designated where the musicians could play, with permits issued by the Municipality so as to bring it some financial benefit.

The mayor of Chania Panagiotis Simandirakis noted that “we have drawn up a schedule for intensified checks by the Police, the Traffic Police and the Harbour Authority.” There was a need for stricter monitoring of the hours for goods deliveries, and more checks on parking by permanent residents, he said.

He also stressed that the staffing problems faced by the Municipality are common to public services everywhere and that understaffing in the security services prevents them from carrying out the necessary checks, given the number of visitors but also of permanent residents in the area.

However, in response to a question about traffic management, he said that “with cooperation and monitoring by the Traffic Police and the Harbour Authority we will be able to manage the situation.” He noted that the Municipality “has already designated 16 sites with retractable bollards which will provide full control of vehicle movements and goods supply in the old city.”

The ambitious plan has already been funded by the Antonis Tritis programme [a local government development programme running under ESPA], he said, and “we are waiting for the project to be tendered in the coming months. That means that this is the last year in which we will need greater surveillance in the old city.”

Referring to the Municipal Police, he said that 36 new posts have already been approved to recreate the body, “which will give us a force of around 50 municipal police officers, thereby taking some of the load of monitoring activities away from the Traffic Police and the Police.”
(Haniotika Nea, 06-03-23)

Parking for visitors to Chania

When foreign tourists are quizzed by the press about their experiences in Chania, the traffic problems invariably come near the top of any negative comments. The sheer volume of traffic, the lack of adequate parking facilities for the number of cars, and the general anarchy which prevails in parking and driving in the city have long been a subject of complaint from residents and visitors alike.

A plan for a park-and-ride system, with car parks sited around the periphery of the city and a shuttle bus service to the centre, has been in gestation at least since since 2021. Four sites are envisaged, at Kladissos to the west of the city, Mournies in the south, Halepa in the east and near the MAICH on the Souda road. While little has been heard of the project recently, in November last year the mayor of Chania announced the purchase of five electric buses to be used for the shuttle service at a cost of €4 million. Delivery is expected by September 2023.

Public and private car parks

Meanwhile there are quite a large number of public car parks, and a few private ones, distributed around the city centre. They can be found fairly easily on Google maps, and there is a dedicated map on the Municipality’s website https://www.chania.gr/ta-chania-mou/thesis-stathmeysis/parking.html which lists their addresses and the number of available spaces (private parks are shown in red). All of them tend to fill up on weekdays between 10.00 am and lunchtime. The city centre being fairly compact, none of them is more than 10-15 minutes’ walk way from most places of interest. There is also a large and unofficial free car park next to the open-air theatre in the Eastern Moat which does not feature on the Municipality’s map.

Among the public car parks, that on Nikiforou Foka is to be recommended – it is large, easy of access and within a short walk of the Agora. Of the private car parks, the multi-storey Apollon, which has entrances on Markou Botsari and Grigoriou E., probably offers the most facilities. One leaves one’s car on the ground floor with the keys in it and it is parked on the upper storeys by the staff, who then bring it to the exit when you want to leave. It is professionally run, open 24 hours a day, and offers car washing during the day. There are also toilets and a single charging bay for electric cars. It is more expensive than the public parks, but the first 10 minutes are free. The first hour is charged at €4.00, with successive hours varying between 2 euros and 50 cents. According to their website https://parkingapollon.gr/arxikh-en/ if you take a coffee at the Kipos café, you get three hours’ free parking, and they advertise a 35 per cent discount for large families and the handicapped. You can also get a free bike for travelling round the city centre, where the Municipality has been installing cycle tracks on some of the main streets (though we have not tested this for availability).

The digital parking scheme

All public parking in Chania now uses a digital scheme for paying parking charges, having abandoned the use of ticket machines in the car parks and at the roadside. The scheme uses an app called i-PARK Chania which can be downloaded from Google Play and the App Store. Instructions within the app are in both Greek and English.

After installing the app, the user can register up to 5 cars on one account, and there is a wallet which can be loaded with the use of a debit or credit card. On arriving at a parking space you simply open the app, choose the vehicle registration number and the time required, and debit the wallet with the stated charge. Charges range from 20 cents for half an hour to €4.80 for 4 hours, which is the maximum time allowed.

Parking hours are from 7.00 am to 9.00 pm Monday to Saturday; Sundays and public holidays are free. You can only book time for the current period but if it is out of hours, the app will tell you there is no charge. It will also send you an email telling you that your time is about to expire.

The system is highly flexible: for the moment the whole of Chania is a single parking area with the same charges, and you can park anywhere where there is controlled parking with the same payment. You can also move to another parking place nearby or in another part of the city and use up any unexpired time.

For the digitally challenged, paper parking tickets can be paid for at peripteros and cafés in the city centre, which are listed on the municipal website at https://www.chania.gr/ta-chania-mou/i-parkCHANIA/i-parkapp.html (where there is also a bilingual video and downloadable instruction leaflets in Greek and English). It is also possible to pay online with a smartphone via a QR code displayed on the street.