Patrick Busuttil, general manager, Guard & Warden Service House Ltd, Msida
Warden acted correctly
Matthew Bonello (May 2) alleges that a local warden gave him a ticket in Sir Ugo Mifsud Street, Ta' Xbiex, although he did not exceed the 90-minute limit for parking, according to a recently introduced parking scheme.
The facts are as follows: When the warden passed on foot patrol at 9 a.m., Mr Bonello's car was observed already parked in that street with the clock on the windscreen set for 9.30 a.m. The warden waited the full time, just in case there was a genuine mistake, and passed again at 10.35 to find the car still parked in the same street - at which point the contravention was issued.
It is pertinent to note that, under this new parking scheme, vehicles cannot return to the same street within an hour of having parked for the 90 minutes allowed because the scheme is intended to favour residents, who complained to the local council on a lack of parking space.
Mr Bonello laments that when he phoned Ta' Xbiex council, the receptionist told him the council "was not involved in issuing tickets (m'għandux x'jaqsam)". It is pertinent to state that all customer care relationships lie with the councils. Such a reply is totally wrong and unacceptable.
When there are situations where the public feels they need to discuss issues or a bone of contention, they should make the case to the local council, which would refer the matter to the District Authorised Officer, who is employed by the respective Joint Committees to manage the system in its entirety.
Mr Bonello has several options, apart from writing to newspapers: he can make a complaint to the council, as was suggested even in a couple of comments to the letter on timesofmalta.com; he can write a petition to the Petitions Board; or he can contest the contravention before the Local Tribunal. Again, he need not go himself, but he can send his authorised representative.
Wardens, it is worth reiterating, do not issue tickets to pay for their salaries or to increase the income of their employers. Local warden agencies are contracted out by the Joint Committees of the local councils to offer a service in relation to enforcement, irrespective of how many contraventions are issued. It is the role of wardens both to educate and to enforce the law.
Wardens are trained and also have to constantly update themselves through refresher courses in order to retain their licence. Finally, it is the local councils and the warden agencies who police their wardens.
Each inquiry and/or complaint is investigated and action taken where necessary.
Another correspondent, Joel Azzopardi, commenting on Mr Bonello's letter on timesofmalta.com, writes about waiting 45 minutes for a warden to arrive from Msida when he was involved in a collision on the ferry at Ċirkewwa. This must have happened over a year ago because the procedure has since changed.
Drivers are asked to settle the matter either on board the vessel or to take their vehicles off and settle the matter on the quay so as not to interfere with the ferry schedule.
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joseph camilleri
May 9th 2008, 00:35
I can't understand the pure parking discrimination in Valletta. A normal Maltese citizen to find a certain white lined parking which probably would be on a pavement or somewhere aside, has to pay the cva fees!!
Everybody knows the parking problem. Normally every stretch of area where cars can park is embellished from the local council with trees, or big pavements, getting less parking space so they can make more money out of this educational system!!
Personally I do not believe in these talking system; board of petitions or whatever you can call them. It is all wasting of time and money in telephone calls etc because at the end the citizen have to pay.
Joseph Camilleri
Dave Alan Caruana
May 8th 2008, 22:54
Some time ago I was issued with a parking ticket, which I paid through the online system.
Although I did not know about this, the payment system failed and did not show any error messages. I found out about this when I went to pay my license, and wasn't allowed.
This was the start of a 3 month saga - the council said they are not involved (the B'Kara one),
and the wardens said they are not involved with online payments, go to the DLC .. the DLC said
it was Mitts' fault, the online payment is faulty, they had told them many times, and there was
nothing they could do about it .. Meanwhile, I had an unlicensed car, and the San Gwann local council took it on itself to send a warden issuing me a ticket daily.
I resolved to find out who was really responsible, and went back to the local council (my starting point) .. this time they blamed a 'kumitat kongunt' .. giving it the air of some abstract entity. It is impossible to speak to the kumitat kongunt according to the council ..
A bit of ferreting around on the Internet revealed the Birkirkara Mayor's personal mobile phone number, and a very shocked mayor ('you shouldn't be calling this number').
I managed to get the personal mobile number of the guy leading the kumitat kongunt ... the abstract entity finally began to have names ..
I called this number, to a really shocked response .. 'where did you get my number?' following which the phonecall became quite loud (it wasn't me being angry!) .. I should sort this out with the Birkirkara Local Council was the the word ..
So, I mentioned what I had been through, and that my last resort would be to sort this out 'in a more public forum' (this, by email, in writing) ..
I suddenly get a call back by the same person, in a much more amenable mood, who told me not to worry about my personalised warden issuing me the daily fines, that I should go pay my Lm10 fine, and the rest would magically sort itself out ... which it did ...
So this, friends, is the correct way to sort out an administrative error when it comes to wardens! Never give up!!
Tony Scott
May 8th 2008, 20:29
Mr P Busuttil, just a question. When you said wardens are there also to educate, do you know exactly what are you saying? Does it mean that a car (mine) parked on reserved parking(mine); having attached on the screen with the Handicapped Sticker (blue at that time) (yes I am a handicapped) be booked several times in the same place, in about three months, that the amount came to the amount of around LM300?!! By the way the amount continued to escalate until my car was smashed by some drunken driver...Ow I forgot the last booking was because I did not keep the car as I should.... If as you say wardens are there to educate also, shouldn't be noticed that something is wrong? Ow by the way I was confined in my house waiting for my caliper from hospital to arrive (months) that I ended up with damaged back, and of course my left leg (polio they say). Would like to bring to your attention that I did not pay or went to the Local Tribunal, first thing as i said I could not walk and second because of my health. AND I WILL NOT PAY NO MATTER WHAT. - For now I said enough, I have other things to say related to this (mine) story. Hope you can clarify!
John Schembri
May 8th 2008, 19:42
The general manager of a privately owned security service company has spoken from his high chair "Mr Bonello , you said a lie, the warden said the truth , we are upright people , even though our earnings depend on the fines people like you have to pay".
Let us scrap the system , or make the wardens' companies pay fines if they do not provide enough proof to issue a ticket to an innocent citizen.
As it is, the system presents an uphill battle to John citizen, we are in dire need of a level playing field.
Tony Stivala
May 8th 2008, 16:12
Mr Joel Azzopardi
As soon as I wrote the blog below I had to go to Malta for an errand with a fellow Gozitan, and when I was driving past the Rivera Hotel towards It-Torri L-Ahmar, we saw a warden hiding in a bus stop layby to see who he can book, after I made a comment to my friend that this is nothing but entrappment I was told but everybody knows about him, he is always there for at least the last two years, now, that is a stonethrow away from Cirkewwa Harbour. And yes, writing on papers seem to ruffle the feathers of Mr Busutill alright. This is the second time I saw a letter from him defending his precious wardens in less then a month
Elaine Bonello
May 8th 2008, 14:49
Mr Busuttil,
Before stating "the facts are as follows" so authoritatively, you may wish to check the close circuit camera at the St Julians' post office at 9 am on the date in question. You should see my brother walking through the doors.
The warden in question may need to have his eyesight checked and his watch fixed.
My brother is well capable of taking care of his own affairs but seeing that he is away I could not stomach the way you play judge, jury and prosecutor on this matter.
Patrick Camilleri
May 8th 2008, 14:07
The ta' Xbiex parking scheme is ridiculous. Most of the properties are villas with their own garages and / or driveways and hence residents do not park on the streets.
Moreover by the time the residents get back from work in the evening the area is deserted and it is easy for them to park. It is during office hours that there is a parking problem ....... and it is a problem for visitors / office workers and not the residents.
Bear in mind:
a) Residents either have their own drive/ garage or
b) During working hours they are at work
For the scheme to have made sense the Local Council should have carried out a street by street study to see whether there really was a residents parking problem. Some streets, occupied by villas (with garages and / or driveways) clearly do not need the parking scheme.
In fact for most of the day these reserved areas are empty .......
L Galea
May 8th 2008, 12:51
I agree with Matthew Bonello.
When contacted, the Local Councils say that they have nothing to do with issuing tickets, although it is the Local Councils who engage the wardens.
Residents parking schemes have been declared discriminatory both by a Local Tribunal and by the Board for Petitions when the schemes were challenged.
The schemes are therefore both illegal and unconstitutional since discrimination is prohibited by the Constitution apart from EU law.
The sheer arrogance of Local Councils and wardens is evidenced by continuing to maintain such schemes and continuing to issue such tickets and milking the innocent citizens of their hard-earned money.
If the Local Councils continue with such illegal, discriminatory and unconstitutional schemes, we are going to arrive at a situation where no one can leave his town because there will be either nowhere to park or risk being fined even when visiting relatives in another town.
Furthermore, Mr Bonello and every other person have a right to publicly air their complaints so that the general public will become aware of the unbearable illegal situation and what steps are taken by other complainants in a similar situation.
Mr Busuttil is certainly unhappy with complaints being aired on the media because if everyone becomes aware of their rights and starts complaining he stands to lose money.
I strongly urge to the Government to take hold of the situation and ban such schemes since they are and have been declared discriminatory and therefore illegal and unconstitutional and have created a snowball effect with many Local Councils adopting such schemes.
After all, the government will be doing nothing more than its duty to abide by the Constitution which specifically prohibits discrimination.
EdwardGatt
May 8th 2008, 11:51
In a judgement given on 31 January 2007 by Judge Lino Farrugia Sacco (949/2004) the court decided that the local council was acting ultra vires when the Pieta local council imposed a residential parking scheme as this was effectively discriminating between Maltese citizens who live in different areas of the island. Can Mr Busuttil please enlighten us why local councils and wardens are still issuing tickets for these residents'parking schemes when these were judged to be illegal by our law courts?
Maria Gauci
May 8th 2008, 10:53
So it is as Mr Bonello said in his original letter - that it will boil down to the warden's word against his!
Mr. Busuttil said: "Mr Bonello has several options, apart from writing to newspapers". Its a good thing that he wrote to the paper since, at least, he got a reply from you - the General Manager, whereas when one calls the council one will get to repeat the same message several times to a secretary and has to keep on chasing the matter himself. This I’m saying from personal experience (twice!).
Mr. Busuttil also mentions that: "It is the role of wardens both to educate and to enforce the law". A very common occurrence in a newly marked one way road is that you’ll find a warden half way through the road – at which point, as the saying goes, “blajtha!” Is this what you mean by educating? To my mind, educating constitutes a warden before one enters such a road!
Tony Stivala
May 8th 2008, 10:30
Mr Busutill,
I had the same case as explained by yourself regarding Mr Bonello, I genuinly made a mistake of setting the clock @1030 when the proper time was 0930, while I did this I was having a nice chat with a warden who was checking for clocks, at 1100 I came back to find that I was booked, I found the warden and I said you could see it was a genuine mistake, since at the time we were chatting, he said I do not know how long you were going to be, So I had to book you at 0935 to prove that I was not lying as the booking docket comes out with the time it was issued, and he was RIGHT and what you are saying in this letter is wrong because how can your warden prove that he waited for MR Bonello to appear.? it is one's word against another. So your warden was wrong to wait, mind you I was a Maltese in Gożo at the time
Joel Azzopardi
May 8th 2008, 10:12
Regarding my incident on the Gozo ferry at Cirkewwa where we were kept waiting over 45 minutes for the warden to arrive since he left from Imsida. I would like to inform Mr Busuttil that this occurred on Sunday 4th November 2007. This means it occurred 6 months ago and not over a year ago. Therefore even although the procedures have been changed, they did not work!!