Paying parking fines

As a visitor to Malta I am not sure I should comment on the way things are run here; however, if it results in a change for the better then surely it is not wrong!

Last week my wife and I decided to hire a car to tour the island. After carefully listening to the instructions of the hire company owner, we eagerly drove off. About an hour later we were looking for a parking space near our residence and were happy to see one being given up just a few metres from our front door. We quickly snapped it up.

On returning to the car about an hour later, we were shocked to find a parking ticket on our windscreen. On close inspection of my parking I realised that I had partially parked on double yellow lines. Now, my complaint is not about my unfortunate ticket - that was my mistake, fair and square. My complaint is with the system of paying the fine.

My ticket was issued by a policeman and not a traffic warden and it clearly stated that payment should be made within seven days and where I could do this. It also warned that failure to pay would result in a court summons. Amazingly, nowhere on the ticket did it mention how much to pay; I had to call the police to confirm this.

The next day my wife and I searched for the appropriate office in Sliema to pay the fine. On arrival we were quickly and courteously attended to but were told that we could not pay the fine until we were summoned.

This appears to me to be an extremely inefficient and unfriendly system. Firstly, as a tourist I will not be here to appear in court, and secondly, why waste time and money issuing a summons for those who do not intend to contest their fine and merely want to settle? Further, why don't the police advise of this system when they are asked?

I am the first to agree that Malta badly needs better traffic and parking control but why do the powers that be complicate things so much? Surely it would be far easier to allow people to pay at any police station? There does appear to be a method of payment by cheque in the past but this is not an option for a tourist and more so if the amount of the fine is not stated.

Now that my observation has been aired, may I commend the whole island for the many improvements that my wife and I have see since our last visit six years ago. I was a mere child when I used to live here in the Seventies and I am very happy with the brighter and cleaner Malta.