Traffic fines net €5.1m annually
Labour’s main spokesman for local government Stefan Buontempo told Parliament yesterday that wardens issued 400 tickets a day last year.
The opposition main spokesman for local government, Stefan Buontempo, told Parliament yesterday that 146,000 traffic tickets per year had been issued by local wardens over the last three years, with government revenue going up to €3.5 million.
This meant wardens were issuing 400 traffic tickets a day. Nearly 36,500 tickets were through speed cameras with revenue for the government amounting to €1.6 million.
Dr Buontempo was speaking during the second reading of the Private Guards and Local Wardens (Amendment) Bill, which provides for the revocation or suspension of a warden’s licence.
The Labour MP charged that the government was financing the operations of the Law Enforcement System (LES) and the regional committees through the collection of fines. The Local Enforcement System scheme groups together a number of participants including statutory bodies and private agencies. The government estimated that the system would be self-financed.
Dr Buontempo said it was clear that wardens – who only earned a minimum wage – would be pressurised to give more traffic tickets so that the system would remain sustainable. One could not, therefore, believe that the government wanted to place emphasis on education rather than in giving fines.
He criticised the government for setting up an ad hoc board of discipline to deal with the revocation or suspension of wardens’ licences when such a board had already been established by the LES managing committee.
Dr Buontempo said that after receiving complaints from the public, the department for local government had issued a memorandum to local councils that their funds could be decreased if they refused to accept payment of fines. The parliamentary secretariat had said that no local councils had refused such payments. Clearly, he said, there was a lack of coordination between the two.
The introduction of eco wardens had started in the northern region, allocating one warden to give eight hours of service once monthly to each of four local councils. This showed the government was implementing measures for propaganda purposes only.
Karl Gouder (PN) said wardens had an important role both in short-term traffic plans to control traffic jams as well as in plans that had a long-term effect.
The system needed to be strengthened and proper training to wardens should also be offered. It was true that people needed to pay tickets in order to stop making contraventions. However, better behaviour on the warden’s part would lead to more people admitting their mistakes rather than arguing with the warden giving them the ticket. Proper attitude and behaviour was needed and training would serve this purpose.
There was the need to strengthen the system of warnings for first-time offenders. Local wardens should first educate and then give tickets.
The government was investing millions of euros on the conservation of the environment and thus it made sense to green wardens working properly. Those who broke environmental laws must be disciplined.
Carmelo Abela (PL) said the Bill was just a page long and lacked details which the House should be made aware of. It was an insult to Parliament and should not have been presented as an enabling law.
The Bill was proposing the setting up of a disciplinary board but failed to specify its functions, composition and procedures to be used. It was unacceptable that the government was expecting the opposition to agree with such a board without knowing all the details and permitting the government to have a free hand on the criteria through legal notices.
He said that when local wardens were introduced, Minister Austin Gatt had said that during the first few months of operation, they would concentrate on educating the public and not giving tickets; local wardens would mostly focus on environmental laws such as littering. This promise was, however, short-lived.
He hoped that the government would evaluate the opposition’s criticism and would not present such Bills again in Parliament.
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Sylvana Camilleri
Nov 16th 2011, 18:01
To add insult to injury, they expect me to spend a whole morning at the tribunal to contest the fine!!! When it's their mistake!!! once again.....SHAME
DannyBoy BartoloJr.
Nov 16th 2011, 19:52
Welcome to Malta Sylvana, when in Gozo always make a point to watch where you leave you car so...watch out watch out there is a Gozitan Vulture about.
Sylvana Camilleri
Nov 16th 2011, 18:00
I use a commercial company car every day, with my number plate's last two letters being GV (meaning goods van). The law to have these plates fixed on all commercial vehicles has been updated on 1st January 2010, but I keep getting fines for parking on an unloading bay! even though my car IS commercial, I park to unload, and the number plate indicates very clearly that I have all the rights to park there. Every time I call the local counsil to explain, they all tell me that they have no idea about this amendement (GV), even after almost 2 years!!! shame!!!
Giovann Demartino
Nov 16th 2011, 17:50
And if wardens had to do their duty properly we would have to move the point a place to the right! Pay a visit to the square in front of the B'Kara parish church to mention one example) and see what I mean.
VINCENT WILLIAMS
Nov 16th 2011, 17:30
It is a fact that many Maltese drivers are really bad ones. They don't care about any traffic regulation. Trying to cross a street near a roundabout 9 out of 10 drivers does not light the indicator side lamp to indicate which way they are going. Even at traffic lights many drivers keep on going even through 'Red' lights indicating that they must stop. Many drivers just stop on the Zebra Crossing when according to the traffic lights they should had stopped when the 'Orange' light was on. Thus pedestrians just could not cross the street because they find their way blocked by vehicles.
I am not surprised at all with the number of tickets given by wardens. In our country there is no traffic discipline at all. Visiting England I am always reminded how the Maltese drivers are bad. I agree that the government should embark on an education programme but after such education programme the fines should be higher than they are at the moment.
Government and Local Councils must employ more Green Wardens as our country is a very dirty one. I am sure that if the government will not increase discipline, besides other things. I strongly believe that in a few years those countries who where under the 'Iron Curtain' and had joined the EU will surpass Malta in every way.
Charles Micallef
Nov 16th 2011, 15:10
No wonder that the authorities are not interested in educating the drivers, if there is such an 'earner' involved
riccardo borg
Nov 16th 2011, 14:35
Cars are best driven in pairs. One goes shopping the other stays in the car ready to move as the warden approaches Stop nearby. Use the mobile and returnn to pick your partner. Use a little petrol ond your brains and save money. Use a hotel where there is parking available and if you dislike walking shun the other hotels. I may vote for the party in Govt., but that does not mean that I am bound to hand my money to it, for any reason, unless it is justified and common to all. A little bit of walking does not hurt healthy or strong overweight people.
Ray Mangion
Nov 16th 2011, 13:26
5.1 million euro! one would say that a good percentage of these fines should be contested, but people don`t bother because of the inconvenience of going to the Tribunals and even if they did the ones making the decisions are biased. On a couple of occasions I have found tickets on my car for parking in Valletta on a Disabled, when I permanently show my disabled card on my dashboard. To make it even worse other cars parked on disabled spaces with no disabled card are not penalised. What does it tell you? Wardens are just a bunch of happy go lucky law breakers themselves as they do not follow their rules and procedures; that is if they know what that means. I blame the Councils for allowing this to happen and they are quite happy to keep it that way as money keeps pouring in.
Jeff Mead
Nov 16th 2011, 12:01
Yes 400 tickets a day and most of them were issued in Gozo, mainly on the weekends when the Maltese tend to visit the sleepy island and also K reg's vehicle driven by tourists who cannot even speak or understand any English let alone the semitic language of the Maltese or any parking restrictions by the Arcadia mainly and the main street in Victoria, i even seen locals parking in the disable bay(s) thus no disable badges to be seen or displayed, mainly by local young Gozitan women.
C Borg
Nov 16th 2011, 12:48
If most of the tickets were issued in Gozo than most of the wardens in Malta aren't issuing any tickets.
Being frequently in the places you mentioned, rest assured that wardens spare no one from a ticket.
You make it sound like Gozitans are exempt from the wardens watch!
Tourists and non-locals are of course more vulnerable since they would not know the area and oversee the law or tend to take the risk rather than loosing most of their limited time to find a regular parking which most of the times is not available.
Mango Charlie
Nov 16th 2011, 13:42
Still Mr.Borg thats no excuse the fact remains is as Mr Mead says that most tickets are issued by the Local Vultures as they are known by in Gozo, whether a Maltese visiter or a foreign visiter, they just pray on them i say Vultures and they must get their quota of tickets so one warden even told me whilst i was waiting for my wife to come out the arcadia supermarket.
Pauline Thompson
Nov 16th 2011, 16:37
My family and I were fined four times on three seperate visits to Malta. Twice on the first visit, apparently for parking too close to a junction & the other for going over a white line??? On the next visit for driving through a tunnel with no lights on and on the last visit for driving a vehicle without wearing a seatbelt. No tickets were issued on all four alleged contravations and only found out about the charges when we received our credit card bill. We didn't challenge the first two fines because the car hire company took liberty of having our credit card details & paid off the fines without our knowledge & offered us no advise how to challege such fines even though we remained in Malta some ten days after the alleged offences took place. Unlike the first car rental owner, on our second visit the car company owner contacted us immediately & informed us of the alleged offence, gave us the details & advise us how to challenge it. We were shopping miles away at the time where the alleged offence had taken place & were able to give the shop receipt to the car rental owner to use in our defence to prove our innocence. However, that was a waste of time as the Commissioner of Justice's decision was that we obtained the receipt from someone else!! Needless to say we were fuming so I wrote a letter & sent it by registered post expressing my disappointment. I've had no reply which that was no suprise. The final alleged offence took several telephone calls, emails to various people and took some seven months to sort out. It wasn't a matter of not wanting to pay it was a matter of being booked for something that was purely untrue. The cost in telephone calls & my time accumilated to far more than the fine was but it was a matter of principle. The warden fined us (or tried to) but issued no ticket to us. He knew that he couldn't do that yet he did because he knew he could get away with it. Traffic wardens should be enforcing the law legitimately therefore act in an honest, legal manner and educating road users. I wander how closely these wardens are monitored. From your comments Mr Mead it appears that such practises are still allowed to happen not only to tourists but locals alike. Tourists are targeted because it may appear to the wardens that once they leave the island they will not contest the fines. It obviously leaves a bad taste & tourists will not return in a hurry to your beautiful islands whilst it's being polluted by these rogues' actions. Locals need to take a stand & challenge their fines without backing off from bullies if they believe that they have been unlawfully fined.
J.C. Borg
Nov 16th 2011, 11:15
All these fines and not all drivers have learned the lesson.
Asta Peterson
Nov 17th 2011, 20:27
Sorry to read about the bad luck you had with the local wardens or as someone better discription as the VULTURES of malta as oppose to the Maltese falcon, however i would have thought you knew by now that once you hand over cash to the natives or to be politcally correct the locals the maltese you will never ever see it again or very hard to get it back, we learned that the hard way, so once bitten twice shy, so Pauline Thompson better luck next time eh.
Peter Murray
Nov 16th 2011, 10:15
Answers to these questions please:-
1.Do Wardens operate to a bonus system and get paid pro-rata to how many citations they issue?
2.Are Wardens compelled to issue a certain minimum number of violation notices per work shift or else face consequences?
2.How much money is owed in fines ?
3.How much annual profit does the organisation operating the warden system make and declare?