Muscat calls for wardens system which 'educates'
Dr Joseph Muscat is interviewed by l-orizzont editor Frans Ghirxi.
Labour leader Joseph Muscat said last night that the wardens system should be there to educate, not to serve for tax collection.
Replying to questions at a party activity in Zurrieq, Dr Muscat said local councils needed to reduce bureaucracy, and Labour councillors should, in their decision-making, always take the side of the people. Mayors and councillors also needed to be more accessible to the people.
When he spoke on local law enforcement, Dr Muscat said discipline had to be exercised, but it was unacceptable that a driver who stopped and dashed into a shop for a minute was immediately fined by a warden keen on achieving his quota of fines.
The wardens should not have such quotas and the people were already burdened enough with taxes and should not have to pay more, Dr Muscat said. The local enforcement mechanism therefore needed to be reformed.
Dr Muscat also refered to speed cameras, saying that while he agreed with them, enforcement should also be 'in favour of the citizen". Through fines, the people were ending up subsidising a few companies, he said.
Popular Stories
Update 3: Woman found dead in car,...
Updated: Woman dies in car crash
Part of Dwejra 'Azure window' collapses
Carm Mifsud Bonnici resigns after...
The end of the bar that ‘never closed’
Bundy does not know whether to...
Updated - Jason Micallef demands...
This WAS the night - Kurt makes it...
Petrol price up 6c
In Discussion
Updated - Jason Micallef demands...
Gozo tunnel could take 5-7 years to...
CABS remote controlled aircraft shot...
Carm Mifsud Bonnici resigns after...
Joseph Calleja condemns portrayal of...
Updated: Labour would give...
CABS drone shot down
Second group of migrants arrives
Adrian Vassallo in scathing...
3 Comments
Post comment
Please sign in or create your Account to post comments.
Franco Farrugia
May 13th 2009, 23:29
But dear Dr Muscat ... don't you think that wardens have to be educated themselves, first, in order to be of educational service to others?
M Saliba
May 13th 2009, 15:06
@Marco Spiteri
Still after all this time with the present warden system extra tax is collected and nothing has been realistically done by Dr. Chris Said. All words and no action. The only time when I get less tickets and I get more 'educated' by wardens is when an election is nearby.
Marco Spiteri
May 13th 2009, 14:28
What Dr. Muscat is saying regarding wardens educating and not tax collecting is nothing new. Dr. Chris Said has already spoken clearly on this when addressing local councillors at a meeting held purposely at the Excelsior Hotel a couple of weeks ago. Furthermore Dr. Chris Said had already adopted this measure when he was still a Mayor at Nadur that is to educate rather than just to collect taxes.
Dr. Said also made it clear that he will clamp down on anyone abusing of this system....and also agrees that the system might be subsidising a few comapnies. Obviously Dr. Muscat is trying to make an election issue out of this on the eve of an MEP election but all councillors have already been assured that the problem is in hand.