Cheated by 'green' wardens

The Sunday Times often prints letters from disgruntled citizens complaining about how they were 'waylaid' by plain-clothes so-called 'green wardens' waiting incognito by full skips for easy pickings.

These people apparently have nothing better to do than to spend entire days 'covertly' posing as Joe Citizen waiting for some poor sap to leave his rubbish by an overfilled skip - the perfect recipe for a quick on-the-spot fine.

Has the thought ever occurred to them that they could serve Maltese society better (and thereby giving the so-called 'green warden' service a semblance of doing some good for once) by simply phoning those concerned to come and empty the skips in the first place, and/or making a request for more skips where repetitive cases of skips are filling quickly?

Contrary to popular belief, the 'green' in 'green warden' refers to the environment and not the 'Greenback', dollar or euro, although some people may be forgiven for making this connection on account of the money-grabbing antics.

It therefore stands to reason that they would be better off being out there protecting the environment; this is what they are paid to do by our taxes and not to harass people outside their own homes.

Indeed, by simply lying in wait and pouncing on people who are good enough to use skips instead of dumping their refuse willy-nilly, they are actively discouraging people from making use of skips in the first place. What is this country coming to?

One only needs to read in your pages how the environment continues to be abused and illegal dumping continues undeterred, but perhaps the wardens find it easier to face-off with a stressed-out housewife than an irate lorry driver.

Picnickers also leave untold piles of rubbish after every public holiday in good weather - a case in point is Miżieb this week. Why are the wardens not on site to educate people and make our countryside a better place as they are supposed to?

I am aghast that the local councils and the authorities allow the unsavoury practice of lying in wait beside full skips to continue unabated. Are they perhaps in full agreement with this distasteful practice or are they going to put a stop to it?

And I would like to end with another question: If the same entity is responsible for the emptying of skips and the so-called 'green wardens', is that not a clear-cut case of conflict of interest?