St. Petersburg explains uncleared snow on paid parking

The head of the St. Petersburg Committee for Improvement, Sergei Petrichenko, explained that snow on some paid parking lots during the New Year holidays was not cleared because of cars left by residents who had gone away. «During the January holidays, we had several snowfalls. The same regulatory deadlines were in effect: we try to clear the paid parking zone quickly, within one to two days. But there is a nuance. During the January holidays, many St. Petersburg residents left for other regions, leaving their vehicles for effectively the entire long holidays, which lasted from 31 December to 11 January, with the 12th being the first working day. And effectively, people only returned to the city on the 11th. We got the opportunity because residents reparked their vehicles,» said Petrichenko.

He emphasized that the problem concerned specifically the paid parking zones. Cleaning with machinery when cars are parked is difficult and risks accidental damage, which could lead to lawsuits and compensation obligations.

Recall that earlier in the center of St. Petersburg, night parking bans were tested during the winter on certain streets.