Building sites and the public

Parliament is discussing new legislation on the construction industry.

There are points pertaining to neighbours of a site to be developed. Would the law impose a time limit between the demolition of a building site and commencement of work on the project?

This is important as some developers are leaving the site nearly abandoned for years with the consequent difficulties for the neighbours, including the state of the common wall.

John Inguanez – Fgura

Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Reshape LESA’s integrity

It’s no surprise that LESA’s income is derived from the contraventions issued by wardens or due to speed cameras. Their worry being that the more compliant we drivers become, the less of an income would go to LESA! I was further surprised to learn that some of the wardens are illiterate!

What with the number of cars increasing, compounded by the fact that the government is hell-bent on building flyovers and no car parks, LESA need not worry because there will always be the driver who will have no option but to park in dubious spaces.

One local newspaper informed us that the wardens would start to educate the public and be lenient! That was all eyewash. How do you expect help from a person whose income originates solely from the monies which come from the number of contraventions issued?

A warden knows where people tend to congregate and prepares to prey upon them, appearing near pharmacies, promenades and churches, even on a Sunday!

 Most of the time, petitions are not accepted. One receives a letter informing one that one’s petition was not accepted. No reason is mentioned why it was not accepted. First and foremost, when typing your petition, there is insufficient space for one to type in his/her lamentation, so here I ask LESA to enlarge this space and,  also, when refusing a petition, to give the reason why it has been refused, thus leaving it up to the driver whether to pay up or go to the tribunal and be shouted at as if you were a criminal.

Who decides where all the signage on our roads should go, be it yellow or white paint jobs or signs? I ask: how do these people know how many vehicles actually congregate upon certain villages that are already well saturated with the cars of their own residents?

Basically, if the person who plans the road signage is wrong we then have the warden who will, obviously, take the wrong decision too. Consequently, they just go ahead and print out contraventions.

What is certain is that wardens cannot continue to rule the roads in the manner they do at present.

They just issue contraventions and, when they are wrong, they are not admonished for wasting the time of the driver who is forced to go the tribunal to explain his/her case.

The fact remains that LESA is kept buoyant solely by the punishments it dishes out. Hence, never expect any form of leniency from them. The minister for transport should seriously look into this anomaly and reshape the integrity of LESA or have it shut down.

David Demajo – Sliema

Alphabetical advantage

‘Ridiculous situation caused by alphabetical listing of candidates.’ My eye was caught by this sub-headline in the article on electoral reform (January 28).

I am not in a position to comment on the report of candidates choosing their ballot paper names to be placed higher in the alphabetical listings.

However, a detailed analysis I did on the effect of ballot paper position on electoral success in both the Malta parliamentary general election in 2017 and the Malta local government council elections in 2015 showed no alphabetical advantage. This is in marked contrast to the results of the STV elections for the local authority councils in Scotland where the alphabetical advantage is very marked.

The full details are in a paper I presented to the EPOP Conference in 2018:  ‘Comparison of within-party voting patterns in recent STV elections in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland and Malta’. 

The full paper is freely available on the ResearchGate website.

James Gilmour – Edinburgh, Scotland

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