Electoral gimmick or constructive initiative?

The Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government, Chris Said, has announced that a package of changes to the system of fines for such offences as traffic contraventions and littering is under discussion.

For example, it may be that instead of imposing a parking fine, a first-time offender will be let off with a warning. Other similar “minor” offences could be treated in the same way but “more dangerous” infringements, such as jumping a red traffic light, would not be spared.

There may also be a system of incremental fines introduced so that habitual offenders would pay progressively more for a second or subsequent offence.

Dr Said sees these changes as a means of ensuring compliance and not of raising more money from fines. He even felt he should point out that the regional committees stood to lose income from such a system. The whole issue of parking/traffic and litter fines and what are regarded as “non-criminal” offences has always been a fraught one with the Maltese. Some of them see this as an infringement on what they consider to be their God-given right to park wherever they wish, to drive at whatever speed and in whatever manner they choose and, in many cases, to dump their rubbish as they please. In this case, “some” definitely means a lot more than a handful.

The introduction of traffic fines a few years ago has brought some vestige of order to Maltese roads but also deep resentment that the people are being deliberately picked upon by rapacious local councils anxious to fill their coffers at their expense.

There has, indeed, been some truth to this, as Dr Said himself tacitly admitted when he highlighted that, since September this year, local councils were no longer directly responsible for the deployment of wardens, a task taken over by regional committees. In this way, the temptation of having councils assign wardens to those areas where they were likely to issue most tickets – thus maximising income revenue – rather than where they could do most good, had been changed. As a result, wardens were now being deployed on a regional basis in a more targeted and constructive fashion – to, say, monitoring skips to ensure there was no illegal dumping – and the revenue from fines was being used on regional projects.

The question is whether all this is a touch of electoral gimmickry at the start of what could well be an election year, as some are predicting, or is it a constructive evolution of the system aimed at improving the way it operates.

There can be little doubt that parking fines are unpopular (both here and elsewhere, in fairness) and nothing will stop many of us thinking we are entitled to do what we like. But it is unarguable that fines have imposed a modicum of discipline and a healthy dose of income for use by local councils and regional committees. In the seven weeks between September 1 and October 20 this year alone tickets issued amounted to over €453,000.

There can be no doubt that the system is here to stay. But any legal system must also command acceptance if it is to succeed.

While it is difficult to identify precisely the benefits derived by regional committees and local councils from the moneys raised, the improvements that are being contemplated to the system appear on the whole to be targeted in such away as to deter the habitual offender and to encourage those that comply with the rules. This is surely constructive.