Jona Cenameri and Klerisa Azuni
Tirana Parking, an institution under the Tirana Municipality, which administers paid public parking since 2017, has promised that the fees collected from payments through SMS-ve will be used for the greening of the city. However, a study conducted by INA Media found that only 9.3% of the amount raised since 2017 has been used for this purpose.
"This payment goes to greening the city. Thank you!", - is the message that citizens receive from Tirana Parking, as they pay for parking via SMS. The payment is made, the message is sent, and the promise is forgotten, leaving its truth in the confines of an urban legend.
"I use the SMS parking every week Tirana Parking because of work, - says Fjona, a student from Tirana, who besides studies also works. - From what I have seen, the greenery has not increased at all. The park behind the Opera has even turned into a palace", she adds with skepticism towards the hopeful message of Tirana Parking.
The local government expert, Agron Haxhimali, emphasizes the legal weight of this message.
"These messages, approved by the municipality, have the weight and authority of the municipality as a constitutional institution. The content of electronic messages must meet legal requirements and be considered legally binding", he explains.
Tirana Parking, founded in 2015 for the administration of public parking in the capital, offers 3.313 parking spaces with SMS on the side of the roads. The fees for these parkings vary from 100 lek per hour in Zone A, to 40 lek per hour in Zone B and 20 lek per hour in Zone C. These parking places operate from 730 in the morning until 20 p.m00 evening, Monday through Sunday in high activity areas, and Monday through Friday in less active areas.
According to official data, made available to ACQJ, 2024 marks the eighth year that these parking lots have generated revenue. Since 2017, a total of 636 million ALL (about 6.3 million euros) has been collected from these parking fees.
How much money is collected from paid parking?
Since the introduction of payments through SMSfor parking in Tirana, the municipality has collected a significant amount of revenue. However, the promise that these funds would be used for the greening of the city has not been fulfilled to the extent promised.
The promises of greenness, which have not been kept
Seven years ago, the mayor, Erion Veliaj, stated that the income from Tirana Parking would be used for the creation of orbital forest of the city.
"Each citizen, who pays for parking, is basically buying a tree, which we will plant for him and his children in Tirana", Veliaj said at the time.
Regarding the development of orbital forest and revenue collected from public parking through SMS-ve, the Municipality of Tirana answered the questions of the editors ACQJ, clarifying that, according to the Decisions of the Municipal Council no. 48 and no. 49, dated 11.11.2015, as well as Decision no. 158, dated 26.12.2019, "Revenues from parking fees are not intended for a special purpose".
This answer contradicts the message sent to the citizens and the previous statement of Mayor Veliaj: "Every penny that will come from Tirana's parking lots will go to the orbital forest".
Data from Open Procurement show that only about 60 million ALL or 9.3% of the total amount collected was used for the greening of the city (see the tables below).
The professor of local government, Agron Haxhimali, considers this contradiction between the message of Tirana Parking and the official response of the Municipality of Tirana as an unnecessary ambiguity.
"If the citizens are told that the money will be used for the greening of the city, then the municipality should be transparent and report the amount collected and the destination of this money, in accordance with what was promised to the citizens", he argues.
Suspicious tenders: Where are the green spaces?
Since 2017 Tirana Parking has undertaken eight green tenders, according to the data of Open Procurement. Two of these tenders have red flags due to lack of competition, while one tender has been cancelled.
The obligations of the economic operators, according to the tender documents, include the maintenance of a green surface of 837 m², 78 decorative trees and 265 bushes. These tenders have cost about 60 million ALL, but have contributed little to the growth of the greenery of the city of Tirana.
Fines, a growing burden for citizens
Parking service with SMS has been a source of frustration for many citizens, who share different opinions on its functionality and on its contribution to the greening of the city.
"They are fraud! I paid for two hours and they still fined me because I didn't pay, - says Arbëri, angry with the service. "You have nowhere to complain."
Parking in the capital is necessary for Arbër, who does not live in Tirana, but often travels for work. For him, this service remains a permanent problem, both in practical and financial terms.
Alesia, a resident of Tirana, shares the same dissatisfaction: "We use the service and they still fine us".
Suada, who lives and works in Tirana, tries to avoid parking when she receives messages that the system is not working: "I often receive messages that the system is not working and therefore I know that I will be fined".
The same situation happened to Fjona, the student from Tirana, who says: "I received automatic messages saying that the system is not working and therefore my payment has not been made. Due to the fault of the system, I received two fines of 2.000 allek.
According to data from the Municipal Police, the number of administrative fines for wrong parking has tripled from 2017 to 2023, while their value has doubled. Only in the first quarter of 2024, 91 administrative fines were imposed, worth 124 million ALL.
Parking with SMS are paid through telephone operators, making the latter also benefit from a percentage of the parking fees. The telephone operators, responsible for this service, have been Vodafone, ONE, AlbTelecom and Plus, while today they are alone Vodafone and ONE.
Income from parking with SMS, according to the phone companies (in Lek)
Income from parking with SMS minus the percentage the phone companies took (in Lek)
The percentages that these operators have benefited from using their service SMSfor parking fees, have ranged from 13% to 21%. Currently, telephone operators Vodafone and ONE they each benefit from 18% of the money generated from parking with SMS.
The percentages that telephone companies benefit from parking with SMS
So, if one hour of parking is paid 100 lek, 18 lek out of 100 is paid to the telephone company for the service provided.
Were 1 million trees really planted?
On April 22, 2023, on International Earth Day, the Mayor, Erion Veliaj, declared that Tirana had planted its one millionth tree. However, urban planner Doriana Musaj sees this statement as a bubble inflated by propaganda.
"The number 1 million trees is a propaganda figure. If it were true, we would have several tens of green hectares and a developed park with verifiable projects", explains Musaj.
The editorial office of ACQJ addressed to the Municipality of Tirana with a request for information on the number, location and cost of trees planted since 2016 until today. According to the municipality's response, Tirana currently has 563.294 trees (without specifying the period when these trees were planted and how many of them were planted by donors), much less than 1 million. Also, Tirana has 2.295.164 m² of greenery, which represents only 5.49% of the total area of 41.8 km² of the city. According to a calculation based on this data, this means that 4.07 trees have been planted for every square meter, a claim that raises questions about its feasibility.
In response to our request for information, the Municipality of Tirana reported that, from 2016 to the first quarter of 2024, it purchased 118.574 decorative trees and shrubs, while another 18.065 were donated.
Is it possible to plant this number of trees?
Dr. Abdulla Diku, environmental engineering expert, explains: “A tree requires about 25 m² to plant. So 1 million trees would require an area of 25 million square meters or 2.500 hectares. It is impossible that this area was added to the greenery in Tirana, because this is equivalent to the area of Dajti and Priska mountains taken together".
In the calculations made by the municipality, it means that 101.75 trees have been planted for every 25 m², a claim that is contrary to the space required for each tree.
"A million trees, planted at a distance of 5 meters from each other, would stretch over 5.000 kilometers, enough to green both sides of the road from Tirana to Copenhagen", adds Dr. Somewhere.
The urban planner Musaj describes this situation as an attempt to mask the massive constructions in the city: "Greenery is being used to hide the concreting and reinforcement of the city's surfaces, throwing ash in our eyes."
According to the data provided by the Municipality of Tirana, from 2016 to 2024, 716 million ALL have been spent on planting trees; of these, about ALL 75 million were in the form of donations.
Has the planting of trees improved the air quality in Tirana?
Despite the promises of greenness, a study by Co-Plan for 2023 showed that the air quality in Tirana exceeds the parameters set by the European Union. For PM2.5 particles, for which the EU has set a norm of 25 µg/m³, Tirana has reached a maximum value of 800 µg/m³, making the air very polluted. According to the air expert, Elvis Ndreka, these particles are among the most dangerous for human health.
"They are invisible dust particles, but more dangerous than PM10, because they go straight to the human respiratory system, causing serious damage", says Ndreka.
Furthermore, a report published by the European Environment Agency in 2023 ranks Albania in first place for the highest death rate in the region, per 100.000 inhabitants, as a result of exposure to ozone (O₃) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂).
With millions in revenue collected from parking fees and promises for new, green spaces, citizens are left with questions about the destination of this money. Despite the guarantees from the municipality, the lack of transparency and minimal investments in greening show that the promises for the greening of Tirana have not been fulfilled.
The question remains: Where are the green spaces that were promised to Tirana and when will the city fulfill these promises?
