Councils cannot survive without wardens

Just after the last general election, the Prime Minister promised to reform some entities, which were believed to have contributed to such a bad performance at the polls, even though the Nationalist Party was elected. It was a no-confidence vote for the PN. This was confirmed in the European Parliament election one-and-a-half-year later, when the local council elections had also been held. Neither myself nor, I suppose, the people in general can say whether the local councils were in fact reformed.

There were only some changes aimed to ameliorate the salaries and some payments in relation to the councillors, attendance and a few other cosmetic changes that are of no real interest to the citizen.

Now, we have or we will have more expensive local councils but, perhaps, this is not a problem for the central government because the wardens are always on call. Without local wardens, the local councils cannot exist, so now is the time for the local wardens' reform to sustain the councils better.

Some days ago, The Times gave us a hint of these reforms in big letters, announcing that, now, wardens will lay more stress on educating the people (I have my doubts whether this could be done) rather than just focus on fines.

I had been hearing this for years, ever since they took over the job from the police but then you read about the number of tickets issued in a year amounting to hundreds of thousands of euros.

This newspaper also told us how stressful three new rules will be:

(1) Warning to first-time offenders. I would like to know who are such first-offenders and for how long they should remain so.

(2) On-the-spot fines payment. Another move to lure you to pay and not to object in front of a tribunal.

(3) Higher fines for repeat infringement. This rule is surely to regain the money lost as a result of the first rule. What if a driver would not have been responsible of a repeat infringement? Only ministers in their official cars! When we are speaking of repeat infringement we are not referring to drug trafficking, theft or other criminal offences but a parking offence because we do not have adequate parking space.

But, strictly speaking, how can local councils otherwise survive? A few days ago, I read that Kenneth De Martino's warden company is responsible for 84 per cent of this country's enforcement. To me it's a shame.

We citizens are in the hands of a private company. What happens to the police force?

I am very sorry that I have to say this but the PN is being demolished day by day.

The 2008 general election and the EP election were a clear indication of this demolition.

Nobody can say it is untrue. The worst is still to come in about three years' time.

I am not happy about this because, if that happens, it will take 20 or 30 years for the PN to be elected.

I take this opportunity to congratulate John Dalli for his new European appointment. While I am sorry to honestly wish him the best of luck.