If there is one area where this country could do with more discipline, it is on our roads. The careless, selfish, irresponsible and dangerous driving standards of what is unfortunately a large number of drivers, combined with growing traffic congestion in practically all the arterial roads, make the issue of local driving standards ever more urgent.

The White Paper on the reform of the local warden scheme focuses primarily on the financial viability of the current system, currently run by the private sector.

The government is proposing to practically nationalise the system, claiming that a centralised unit would cut costs, increase income for local councils and stop the private sector from pushing local wardens to issue more and more tickets to finance a flawed system.

The ‘new role’ being envisaged for local wardens is one where they would not focus on traffic matters alone but would have their duties extended to cover environment issues. This will involve the training of existing wardens who, Parliamentary Secretary Jose Herrera keeps stressing, will have a more ‘educational role’.

That the system is due for reform after 14 years is not contested. Driving standards in Malta have not improved over this period, so any reform should aim to instil more discipline and responsibility in drivers.

Local wardens have, despite their many defects, helped bring some discipline to our streets, particularly with regard to parking. In return they incurred the full wrath of a public that is allergic to traffic rules of any sort.

Wardens were met with public contempt from their first appearance in the street and the mood has not changed.

Educating wardens on how to better handle the public and to assert their authority in a way that wins respect is commendable. But educating a public through local wardens is an entirely different matter.

Most drivers know the rules but choose to ignore them. The antidote to that is not education but discipline. That means more wardens with ready tickets to issue, not less. The private sector, driven by a profit motive, ensured a steady supply of tickets.

The nationalisation of the warden system, shorn of that profit motive, now raises the spectre of a centralised policy that aims to placate voters rather than ensuring road safety. The indications of this are already there.

While rightly recognising there are problems, the white paper applies populist talk when it speaks of the ‘injustices’ and ‘bad treatment’ meted out by local wardens. It also speaks of a private sector taking the lion’s share of the penalties paid, fanning public sentiment that tickets are being issued not because people deserve to be fined but because some capitalist is out to make money off them. The decision by the Parliamentary Secretariat for Local Councils to fork out money to deploy local wardens from Malta to the sister island on Valentine’s Day, ostensibly in an ‘educational’ role, also smacked of populism.

The message that came across was that Gozitan wardens will not be spoiling the day for Valentine day-trippers by having a field day issuing tickets.

Dr Herrera has already expressed his disapproval of occasions where local wardens descended on large events like village feasts that attracted crowds.

But whatever the occasion, traffic regulations that ensure safety must be respected and enforced without fail because ignoring rules on our congested streets may endanger lives.

Rules cannot be waivered on a whim. The message coming across, however, is that this is what may indeed happen.