Most common offence: taking rubbish out too early

The Environment Minister's call on wardens not to be heavy- handed when enforcing the new littering and dumping regulations - and to focus on the serious offences - seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

Figures of the mock fines issued as warnings by wardens during the trial period, which ended on Saturday, shows that the offence that attracted the most fines was taking out household rubbish more than one hour before collection time - 386 warnings from 1,364.

Although technically this is a contravention, it was precisely one of the offences that Minister George Pullicino, launching the regulations last August, had referred to when he said he hoped that wardens would focus on the "important" offences and not on the petty stuff.

When questioned during that press conference he had insisted that it was crucial for the system to target the core issues of dumping and littering and not verge on the extreme - such as fining somebody who took out their rubbish a couple of hours earlier.

This sort of action, he had said, would backfire: "Let us target the priorities and not go to the other extreme. If we go on a witch-hunt against the public we will not succeed."

But the offences which attracted the most fines were precisely those described as petty by the Minister. In fact, the second largest number of warnings meted out were those to people throwing cigarette butts on the ground, another offence the Minister had said he hoped wardens would not focus upon. This offence drew 248 warnings while, on the other side of the spectrum, 78 people were caught dumping cars and other bulky refuse illegally.

A total of 201 warnings were issued to hawkers for littering and another 190 for the same offence committed by a member of the public.

Another 12 people were warned for scavenging and 69 for spilling water or mud on the pavement. And 22 mock fines were issued to what was euphemistically described as "answering a call of nature".

The trial period during which wardens issued mock fines, instead of the real thing, was scrutinised by the ministry to iron out such glitches.

A review document - seen and reported on by The Times last month - had highlighted the fact that a few wardens were heavy-handed in their approach.

The report lists a number of exaggerated fines such as Lm1,000 for dropping a bottle of wine on a pavement or washing the pavement with soapy water.

Luckily for the offenders, these were just warnings. Since yesterday the system is no longer on trial and the fines issued will from now on be the real thing.