Complaints against local wardens

Mr Joe Vella (The Sunday Times, April 17), wrote that "it is useless to complain through official channels since all you get is a dry reply and normally nothing much happens". It is important to distinguish at this stage between complaints related to the contravention received and complaints related to the action of the warden.

None of the local councils are empowered to discuss and decide whether the contravention issued by a warden is justified or not. This is left to the tribunals which fall under the courts of justice and are totally independent from the administration of the Local Enforcement System and the local councils.

However when it comes to abuses by local wardens, then the LES Management Committee will investigate and take the necessary action.

Mr Vella comes to the wrong conclusion, without even verifying, that as soon as you enter the tribunals "you observe that the secretaries are already clicking in the commands into their software even before the Commissioner for Justice has expressed his decision".

For correctness' sake, the tribunal registrar would be inserting into the computer system the details of case, who appeared, and the details of the wardens giving evidence. The decision of the tribunal is only inserted when pronounced by the Commissioner for Justice and it is the judgment as written by the Commissioner for Justice on the summons which prevails, and not the information inputted in the system by the tribunal registrar.

Moreover, any decision of the Commissioner for Justice is subject to the right of appeal before the Magistrates' Courts as a court of appeal.

If Mr Vella, for his complaint "got a brief note acknowledging my complaint and that it will be dealt with in his tribunal hearing", it is clear that the complaint was related to the merits of the contravention. What does Mr Vella expect - that the local councils would decide on the merits of the contravention instead of the local tribunals which as I have stated, are completely independent and autonomous from local councils and wardens?

For Mr Vella's information, to date I have not received a formal complaint from the lady that decided to make her statements in public (on The Sunday Times) and complain about the warden who issued the contravention in her respect.

Referring to Mr Vella's conclusions, I must state that they are merely incitements trying to put pressure on Government and others against the system. It appears that his reaction to an enforcement system is to threaten political parties that he will not vote in the coming general election or local elections. This is illogical in a democratic society where you have the local tribunals, the Magistrates' Court to whom to appeal, and their independence guaranteed under the Constitution.

Mr Vella states that one should continue to complain through the Ombudsman and the European Commission if need be. He should know that the Ombudsman has no right to intervene in matters which are before a court and moreover, before writing to the European Commission, he should take stock of what the systems in other EU member states are in relation to enforcement, which let me assure him, are very similar to ours.

However he should also know that the EU does not interfere in such matters and all references to the EU Ombudsman on matters relating to local enforcement have not been investigated by him.

Mr Vella incites people to communicate on the media to cut "their supply line" especially about traps or hidden wardens. Lately I read an article in an English newspaper about British traffic police issuing contraventions to offenders and the argument brought by the persons who received these contravention notices were that the police officers were hiding behind trees and therefore trapping drivers. Police authorities stated that drivers should seek to obey driving regulations and not seek the presence of the police to decide whether to obey such regulations or not.

The LES Management Committee believes that some matters could be modified in this system. Rather than inciting people just to complain, I would find it more fruitful if Mr Vella were to communicate his constructive proposals to make the system function better. My appeal goes also to the public, to send any suggestions or proposals to the LES Management Committee, c/o Local Councils Association, 153, Main Street, Balzan BZN 06.

Finally, Mr Vella's claim that the system depends on the fines generated is completely incorrect as some local councils have suffered losses from the system.