Cynthia Busuttil
Wardens to take it easier on drivers
Biggest complaint is about wardens' attitude
Wardens should not be pressured to give out fines by local councils under a reform of the system announced yesterday. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier
Motorists may be about to get a break from constantly looking over their shoulder for fear that a warden is about to pounce and slap them with a fine.
A reform of the local enforcement system, about to be implemented, will be placing more emphasis on driver education and well as introduce warnings rather than fines for first-time offenders.
Moreover, local councils will no longer have such a big incentive to pressure wardens into dishing out fines since the income generated will no longer be going straight into the councils' coffers. Instead, the money will be put in a centralised fund administered by the five regional committees to be set up next month.
According to Parliamentary Secretary Chris Said, this should stop local councils from putting pressure on wardens to dish out as many fines as possible, which, he said, "some" councils did.
Asked whether wardens were given quotas, Dr Said told The Times that although he did not have any proof of this, some wardens had reported being told the number of fines they had to hand down.
Every year wardens rake in €9.5 million worth of fines, more than double the cost of running the local enforcement system, leaving some €3 million profit for the councils. Each warden costs a council between €22 and €25 an hour.
The government is hoping to cut costs through better management of the system but also to reduce the number of fines and instead put an emphasis on education.
"The focus should be on education to remove the need for fines. This is not about making money but ensuring that people observe the laws and that we have better and safer communities," the parliamentary secretary said during a press conference.
He said a number of local councils had failed to understand how the system should be operated and instead used it as a way to make money. Making profit, he explained, was not the aim of the system.
"We have to use this money to give something back to the community."
The 39-point reform will start being introduced this week through the setting up of a management committee to oversee the operational aspects of the system.
Another aspect of the reform is that wardens can be removed by a board of discipline. Although he said not all wardens were doing a poor job, Mr Said admitted that some were not carrying out their duties properly.
"The biggest complaint is about their attitude, the way they speak to people."
The reform will include better working conditions to ensure that the best people for the job are recruited. Warden companies complain that the negative reputation that wardens have is leading to problems in recruitment.
"We need to change this bad perception or wardens will never be accepted," he said, adding there was a shortage of trained wardens.
Wardens will be given additional training which, according to Dr Said, should allow them to better evaluate situations. "If somebody stopped a car for a minute to grab something from a shop, maybe he should be talked to rather than given a fine," he said.
In fact, the reform will introduce a system of warnings for first-time offenders while at the same time increase the fine for repeat offences.
Wardens will have increased responsibilities that will include animal welfare, the management of construction sites and littering offences, among others.
The parliamentary secretary said that eventually the concept of community work should be introduced, instead of payment of fines.
Local enforcement reform
• Tribunal sittings will be held after 5 p.m. so that people will not have to miss a day's work to appeal a fine.
• People will be able to pay fines on the spot through a debit or credit card.
• A special tribunal is expected to be set up to take care of offences related to school absenteeism. Income from fines will go towards special education programmes.
• More wardens will be deployed near areas where children and young people congregate.
• Each local council will have an eco-warden assigned to it, whose job will be solely focused on environment-related contraventions and ensure that cleaning work in the locality is done properly.
• Wardens' PDAs will include a camera so that they can take photos to be used as evidence.
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24 Comments
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Joe Fenech
Nov 21st 2011, 08:18
Hahahahahahaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!
Pre-election glitter....the wardens have been swindling the people for about 20 years. You get a fine for the slightest thing and then they would close an eye if they see a truck dripping diesel or polluting !
B'min tridu tit.... ?????
Ben Buhagiar
Apr 13th 2010, 18:59
LOL wardens are funny !
sandro muscat
Mar 3rd 2010, 19:48
@sandro cremona.........i am a warden .....maybe i can teach you how to use punctuation?,to start with!!!!!
Joe Fenech
Nov 21st 2011, 08:20
Yes, for example : 'i' is always a CAPITAL letter, dodo!
Marisa Ford
Mar 3rd 2010, 10:22
Easy revenue for wardens!!!! Just stand next to the Malta Independent Offices and you are guaranteed revenue from all the cars that jump the red lights. Happens all the time!!!!!!!!!!!!
Robert Agius
Mar 3rd 2010, 10:16
What a joke. Are we supposed to talk this seriously. A generous business, yeah right!
One question - what are the requirements to become a warden? Are they really there to educate us or to give us clear signs of how its very profitable to have country run by incompetents.
John Micallef
Mar 3rd 2010, 09:32
Ara jekk il- gvern ha jibqa jopera is-sistema mil-privat : qliegh irrid issir, coe l-edukazjoni tal- populin tigi wara dan, dan jisejjah negozju.
Asked whether wardens were given quotas, Dr Said told The Times that although he did not have any proof of this, some wardens had reported being told the number of fines they had to hand down.
Jinten dan l-istatment!! in fakar il- minsitru li meta kriminal waqt interogarju jirispondi hekk, hawn investigari li jikonsidrawha: Pass vicin l-amisjoni!1
Sandro Cremona
Mar 3rd 2010, 09:27
Can a warden ever educate me !!!
Mark Grech
Mar 2nd 2010, 18:19
What I sincerely hope they introduce is a system that allows the public to see the fines issued by individual wardens, their contestation rate, and awarding or denial of such contestations.
This would serve as an excellent incentive to wardens to stop issuing ridiculous fines, and should wipe their condescending sneers off of some of their faces.
Conversly it can allow the better wardens to shine and help change the public's idea of what was a very fine-oriented system
ps. What about speed limits? When the commisioner of Police took care of things, these were simple 40km/Hr in built-up areas, 80km/Hr elsewhere.
-- isn't it about time for councils to PUBLICLY accept that safety cameras are money slot machines, and bring them in line with national standards??
Or, conversly again, could they care to show us the studies they did to decide the multitude of different ridiculously low speeds?
Marcel Dingli
Mar 2nd 2010, 18:00
il wardens saru l qixx u l mixx tas sistema guridika maltija,(aghar mill pulizija), u biex taxxaqha l kummissarji tal gustizzja jghattulhom.
Nigel Lawrence
Mar 2nd 2010, 17:40
How about the wardens controlling jaywalkers. THEY are the biggest menace ON the roads.
J. Spiteri
Mar 2nd 2010, 15:14
' Local councils will no longer have such a big incentive to pressure wardens.....'. So we were right in thinking that wardens were pressured to dish out fines for the slightest contravention !
C Cassar
Mar 2nd 2010, 13:19
I think that on a third offense the car in question that breaks a traffic violation should be imponded and then crushed - no ifs, no buts. This includes commercial vehicles.
It's the only way Maltese drivers will take note. They are fully aware when they break traffic/parking regulations and currently play the system to their advantage to the detriment of everyone else.
Greta Rapinett
Mar 2nd 2010, 13:15
What never ceases to amaze me is the fact that on the ocassional whim, in Marsa (ka Menqa), wardens visit the few roads and have a field day handing out tickets.
In all fairness, due to no parking facilities, many vehicles park illegally. Fine, book me. But along with the cars parked illegally, there is always an array of trailers and heavy vehicles which are parked in no parking zones, and they seem to be exempt from getting fined.
Why? Are wardens scared of the big and mighty and find it easier to reach their quotas through the common people?
Shame!!!
What is good for the goose is good for the gander. The law is alike for all.
Louis Borg
Mar 2nd 2010, 13:14
I never thought these wardens were so expensive to keep. Would'nt it be better if more police officers are recruted into the force, and do away with wardens? After all, they have proved that they are only good for small infringments, and nothing else. What was being done on our roads before the wardens were introduced, is still being done today.
Galea. L
Mar 2nd 2010, 12:58
Are the wardens capable of being educated?
Malcolm Mifsud
Mar 2nd 2010, 12:57
I have been booked twice by a warden, one of them 100% unjustly. Any chance of a refund as a sign of goodwill and to make up for the female warden's negative approach while booking me? No use contesting as I prefer having to pay than waste a day or half day to attend tribunal meeting.
ABORG
Mar 2nd 2010, 12:30
@ t farrugia: yes...and that too:)
Thomas Borg
Mar 2nd 2010, 12:27
This shows that elections might be just round the corner. Wardens to take it easier on drivers? What a surprise.
Joseph M. Scicluna
Mar 2nd 2010, 12:15
Local councils may now oblige to the Minister's proposals after 10 whole years of good amount of income pumped in through the Local Wardens. I t is a well-known fact that the Local Wardens Company was requested that the Warden book at least 2 offence tickets per hour, the first ticket to make good for the hiring of the Warden from the company and the second ticket as profit to the Local Council. Hoping that this practice desists, a minority of Local Wardens should be educated thoroughly and taught the code of ethics to make them offer a good attitude towards the public. However, Local Wardens have to be remunerated well above the minimum wage to induce a good initiative towards their work.
t farrugia
Mar 2nd 2010, 12:04
@ ABORG - haha starting from those who use their childrens push chairs to test if it is safe to cross the road!!!!
ABORG
Mar 2nd 2010, 11:12
if the focus will be on education, it would be worthwhile to target pedestrians too....since pedestrians also have to follow a certain code of conduct on the road, such as crossing busy roads abruptly when there is a zebra crossing a couple of footsteps away.
Erin Ciantar
Mar 2nd 2010, 10:30
The proposals sound positive. Now let's see them in practice.
Peter Bonnici
Mar 2nd 2010, 09:21
hehe... education from a warden? .. good one :)