Littering fines remain unpaid

The Local Councils Association is trying to come up with a system that forces litter bugs to dispose of their cash in its coffers as thousands of littering fines remain unpaid.

In the first five months of this year, since the Littering Act was implemented on January 1, 777 fines were issued, which would have raked in Lm68,925. But a measly Lm4,800 has actually been paid.

However, of all those booked until the end of last month, 121 offenders were found not guilty on appeal, 50 fines were withdrawn and 17 were put on hold.

Association president Ian Micallef said when contacted that the littering regulations, though necessary, had so far proved to be a financial burden on local councils.

He said councils were forking out about Lm8 an hour to warden agencies for every green warden hired but the return was minimal.

"There is a mechanism problem in the system and we have to find a way to ensure that the fines are paid," he said.

Dr Micallef explained that littering fines did not have the same enforcement advantages as traffic fines, whereby the offender would not be able to renew his licence without first clearing outstanding fines.

The association is holding a meeting in the coming days to discuss the way forward and brainstorm to find the best possible solution, which they then plan to submit to the government.

"One possible solution could be to tie the offence to the ID card so that whenever you require a service you will first have to pay the fine," he said.

But how often do people use their ID card?

"Well, there are services, such as renewing your passport, where you do need it - we're just trying to come up with the best way to eliminate this loophole and get people to pay," he added.

"Another suggestion is to add the fine to the annual income tax return, but we do not wish people to associate the fine with a tax, when it isn't."

Can't the councils sue to recover the civil debt?

"We can proceed with warrant procedures, but when we tried this with traffic offences we found that it's a very bureaucratic, time-consuming procedure, so we're trying to find more effective alternatives," he said.

Dr Micallef said the general feeling among local councils was one of frustration, because although they had witnessed an improvement in their locality's general cleanliness, there were too many people who were not paying the fines and this was proving to be a hefty burden for most.

However, the regulations are serving as a deterrent and people will probably think twice when they realise that the most common tickets issued by the green wardens has been for throwing, dropping, leaving, spilling or depositing litter in a public place.

In a matter of five months there were 43 fines, exceeding Lm1,000 in total, that were slapped on perpetrators for "dumping or disposing of litter, waste, swill, or any other object of a size and quantity or accumulation, which causes a nuisance or may lead to deterioration or defacement of a public place".

The number of fines issued for leaving the "rubbish out for collection in a public place at an unreasonable time" has gone down and just over 60 were dished out.

When asked about this, Guard and Warden Service House general manager Kenneth De Martino said that green wardens had been directed to focus on more serious issues.

"Local councils using green wardens have been given a clear direction of what they would expect to see," he said.