Going by local wardens' logic

The letter by Joe Vella (February 4) deserves every support. I appreciate that wardens have a difficult job but if they approach it in a more decent manner I am sure they will earn everyone's respect.

If the Local Councils' Association expects citizens to show respect to wardens, they must first instil a sense of pride and responsibility in their employees. Unless they show this respect when they stop offenders instead of using their present arrogant attitude, they will never earn the esteem they deserve.

Like Mr Vella I earned five tickets in a week which included three charges for one offence and, like Mr Vella, I received them in five separate envelopes. Three tickets related to one infringement.

On a fine morning my wife and I were on the way to Gozo and at the top of Mistra Road near the entrance to the Mistra Village I found a horrific traffic jam. This was due to a long vehicle carrying concrete slabs up the hill to Selmun. About 200 vehicles were locked bumper to bumper as this truck was moving at about five miles an hour. When finally the cars started moving the driver in front of me was slow in moving forward. At that time, since I was running a bit late and wanted to catch the ferry I instinctively overtook him (at about 10 mph).

At this point I want to make it very clear that I am guilty of this violation of the traffic code (to quote the warden). But not three times over. Two of the three tickets were issued for crossing the continuous white line and for driving on the wrong side of the road. Isn't this the same thing? When I crossed over the line where did I end up? Not on the wrong side of the road? Wherever could I have gone? By the way the third ticket said that I did not signal to the car behind me that I was crossing over the line. May I ask the warden how could he have seen this when he was "hidden" in the trees about 500 metres away?

The president of the Local Councils' Association knows who this warden is. When I complained to him about these tickets I was told that "only the tribunal has the power to decide whether to inflict a fine for each of the three contraventions or whether to inflict one fine and consider the two other contraventions as being incorporated in the first contravention".

And then I might ask the president: Isn't this a waste of time and energy? The warden, the commissioner, my wife as a witness and myself must make an appearance at the tribunal to discuss this unfortunate incident. Had he booked me I would have paid the relative fine appropriate to my crime without any hassle.

What I want to ask the commissioner is about the arrogant manner in which the warden handled the situation. I have never been to prison and during my working life I was a respected banker. There must be another way of approaching a senior citizen out on a drive with his wife.

One other ticket was for a parking offence. I had the audacity of parking my car at 6 p.m. by St Luke's Hospital in the space reserved for blood donors when the blood bank was closed. A neighbour was issued with two tickets, one for not renewing her car licence and a second for not affixing it to the windscreen. If she forgot to renew her car licence what did that particular warden expect her to display on the windscreen?

I have nothing to say about my fifth ticket but I felt sick reading The Times when the mayor of St Julians boasted that his council inflicted 2,400 tickets in 40 days for overspeeding in the Regional Road tunnel. You are right, I was one of those "criminals" if I am getting the message right. But like Mr Vella said, this is abusive behaviour by the authorities concerned.