Keeping the curtain up

Local councils never had it so good, and thereby the citizen-client benefited hugely. That was the message projected in the relevant part of the Justice Minister's report on the fourth year of activity by the areas within his portfolio.

The minister detailed action taken by local councils to improve traffic arrangements and to enforce traffic regulations in the areas under their jurisdiction. He claimed that thereby propriety continued to increase on the roads of Malta and Gozo. Brave claim, but is it supported by observable fact? Not quite.

For one thing, the road and parking markings highlighted by the minister are becoming less and less observable. Through no fault of his, the outlay on road markings seems to go - as it has done for decades, except that the trend seems to be deteriorating - on rapidly vanishing paint. That is a waste of time and money, for which the hot sun and the rain, when it does fall at all, are not truly justifiable explanations. No value-for-money enforcement is evident in that respect.

In contrast, enforcement is apparent with regard to selective traffic offences. The minister reported that in the 12 months to the end of June, the period covered in his report, local wardens and the police covered 204,153 contraventions. Of these a mere 2,077 charges were concerned. The rest, one presumes, related to traffic offences. Question is: what type of offences?

I am among those who are painfully aware that wardens are extremely zealous when it comes to issuing tickets for improper parking. I was impressed when a warden booked me a few minutes short of midnight for breaching a yellow limit by under a metre. An offence is an offence, whether caused by a foot or by mile, and whatever time it happens. I paid my Lm10 fine without demur.

Some other offences I have heard of were less clear-cut. In the peak of summer, for example, a friend of mine was booked because his vehicle was short of one mudguard. Challenging tickets before the tribunals mentioned in the ministerial report is not a smooth matter either. Another friend of mine was booked twice in less than five minutes. Timing aside, he felt he was innocent of the offences placed at his car-step. He took time off from a busy schedule to toddle along to the tribunal on the fixed date. He left bearing the further (at least, perceived) grievance of having wasted his time. The warden did not turn up.

Lightweight stuff, one might say. Not so. Citizens should never be taken lightly by the instruments of the state.

Is the fact that wardens and the police are issuing an average of 550 traffic-offences charges a day leading to more traffic sense? I think not. The minister did not give a breakdown of the 202,706 contraventions he mentioned. Pity. It is one certain and observable fact, though, that wardens are most frequently seen taking down details of incorrectly parked vehicles.

I would think to a much lesser extent, they note cars with expired licences. That to my mind is a misuse of their time, once licences can be monitored automatically on the all-remembering government computers. Wardens are also to be seen lurking on corners at (usually morning) peak hours, taking note I do not know of what, but certainly not involved in trying out the impossible task of smoothing long traffic tails along.

Through all that wardens issue fines and generate the income stream that pays for their services and, one would imagine, leaves a margin for those who employ them, who are not in the business of offering a social service.

Enforcing the easy bit is still necessary, and that may have been the necessary first step in what has to be a gradual implementation of the local warden project. The figures given by the minister speak for themselves. They show - as the local councils shadow minister said in commenting on the minister's report - that recorded contraventions related to he environment represented just one per cent of the total charges.

The minister had anticipated that one and showed he shared the underlying justification. He said that the government had continued (good loaded word, that) to insist with local councils to see to it that there is a stronger effort to enforce control in the environment and waste-disposal sectors. He added that talks were going on with the environment authority to increase enforcement by local wardens, particularly in rural areas.

When there is proper enforcement of that type, the role of local wardens will be more rounded and therefore closer to the purposes enacted by Parliament. Meanwhile, that rounding should also take on another aspect.

The role of wardens, in the first instance, ought to be to educate through the deterrent effect of their visible presence. That does happen when wardens patrol areas that are notorious for parking infringements. And while there are wardens who are quick to issue tickets, without the required margin of time to allow the offending party to come into line, there are others who allow their presence to serve to spur drivers to remove the offence without delay.

Trouble is that through the sense of the latter revenue from fines is thereby lost. And that is not what seems to be impressed upon wardens.

There is a strong rumour, for instance, that wardens have recently been told that they were expected to issue more tickets. That could be interpreted to mean that they are expected to be more vigilant. It could also mean that, in addition to stronger enforcement being a deterrent more revenue is wanted out of an increased level of fines.

The principle underlying the social contract whereby citizens give up part of their liberty to the state so that society may defend itself through democratic collective organisation does not consist of imposition as the first line of action. The process whereby the contract should operate needs to be restated, obvious though it may be.

It has to start with proper education, starting from the dawning of understanding in children. It has to go on through time: no one is mature enough not to need reminding occasionally. Regulations that must be compiled have to be clear, simple, and reiterated as regularly as can be. Visibility of the disciplined but friendly presence of the regulatory forces then externalises regulation.

The first clear signal of that framework should be that the regulatory forces are there to help and safeguard the citizenry, not to make it apprehensive, or to hound it. The second clear signal should indeed be that, for the sake of the law-abiding vast majority, the tiny majority that selfishly or worse endangers the majority will be brought to book.

One area where that is not being done with any effect relates to over-speeding. I am interested in a breakdown of the contraventions recorded by local wardens and the police to see whether my own impression in that regard is correct.

I form that impression in the first instance as a driver myself, with my considerable share of shortcomings, and also as a pedestrian. Whatever the time of day, there is very evident scant respect for speed limits, whether on our highways, byways, or the shortest, narrowest of urban roads. Among other things, the speed at which children are whizzed to their schools is at times terrifying to observe.

The police could do much more, particularly with better availability of motorcycles. The existing number of mobile police might be better employed than at waving drivers along at congested roundabouts and junctions, as if drivers are not in enough of a hurry to get from point to point. There could also be a saving of one police motorcycle if one instead of the customary two escorts the President.

While one sees many local wardens on foot duty, a number of them are also mobile. Their deployment too could be enhanced so that the deterrent effect can be stronger, leading on to enforcement where there is stubborn resistance to observe speed and parking regulations, to remember that the environment is nobody's waste bin.

Ministerial reports and criticism by shadow ministers serve to bring public policy onto the public stage. Attention should not wane once the curtain is down after that particular scene. The curtain can never go down on the continuous interplay between the connected obligations of the citizen and the state.