HDB PARKING

The increase will be implemented at over 1,300 carparks islandwide with the night parking scheme, which allows non-residents to park their cars and vehicles overnight. This makes up more than 65 per cent of the 1,810 HDB carparks and and 9 per cent of total URA carparks.

The HDB and Urban Redevelopment Authority issued a joint statement on Monday saying that most carparks that allow overnight parking for non-resisdents were "heavily utilised due to higher parking demand".

"This has resulted in residents with season parking tickets facing difficulties in getting a parking space when they return home at night," they said in a statement.

Some think that this measure might work.

Tampines resident, Andrew Soh, 40, told The Straits Times that he thinks the increase in charges will deter night parking users who have been taking advantage of the scheme.

"If you do the maths, at $4 a night it would be about $120 a month. It would make more sense for those residents to buy a season parking ticket when the new charges kick in," he said.

Residents holding the season parking tickets now pay between $65 and $90 per month.

But some feel that instead of increasing the charges, the solution lies in cutting down the country’s car population.

MP for Ang Mo Kio GRC quoted as saying, "I am afraid it will not solve the problem. The root of the problem is the increasing car population."

Taman Jurong resident Chris Sum, 36, gave a different opinion and believes most of the cars parking at the HDB lots belong to residents anyway.

"I would say 100 per cent of people parking are residents," he said.

Aljunied GRC MP added, "Even if you increase the charges, the cars need to be parked. The planning parameters for carpark spaces need to be reviewed together with the national policy for the ownership of cars."

A majority of Yahoo fit to post readers who gave their feedback, agreed that the increase of night parking charges will not solve the parking crunch.

From November onwards, night parking charges at over 1, 300 carparks will double from $2 to $4 in a bid to solve the issue.

Instead, they urge the government to think of other alternatives to counter the problem.

Some suggested for multi-storey carparks to be built while others said that the government should look into ways of controlling the increasing car population.

Yahoo! Fit-to-Post reader, chrice, said "There are way too many cars in Singapore where each family might own 2-3cars. Even if everyone purchase seasonal parking tickets, there are not enough slots for the area."

One reader, laoban128 wrote, "Think of solutions, calculate the demands of carparks and take into account future demand and increase the supply graduating to cope with increase in demand."

But some like kentlim26 supported the move. "If there are no car park chargers, there will be so many cars park all over the place", he wrote.

Another reader, sgturtle, said, "Yes, it’s time to up the parking fee to increase the cost of owning cars and reduce the car population.

In a move to solve the parking space crunch around certain HDB carparks, night parking charges will be increased from $2 to $4 — a 100% increase — starting from November onwards.

Spain unemployment tops 20 percent.

Unemployment in Spain has top 20percent, which means 4.6 million are out of work now, the Spanish government announced on Friday. The figure from the first quarter was 19percent and 4.3million in the previous quarter. It represent the second highest unemployment rate in the European Union, after Latvia, according to the figures by the Eurostat.
This is due to the recession that happen earlier. There were some problems that lead to the increase in unemployment rate, the drop in labour-intensive activity like construction,agriculture and tourism. Another problem found in Spain is that wages are set centrally and most jobs are protected, making it hard to shift skilled workers from one industry to another.
I think the unemploymeny rate will continue to increase unless there is something done to improve the unemployment rate.