I never imagined that I would enjoy contesting the Lija local council election as much as I am. The prospect of knocking on people’s doors, and “disturbing” them, was one that initially put me off. It is only after I plucked up enough courage and pressed the first doorbell that I started to realise that many people, of all political shades, want to speak to you. When visiting people’s homes and listening to their concerns and complaints I fully realised that at least 80 per cent of the political work done on “the big issues” – political issues like the environment, the economy and foreign policy– are really of little concern to the people. Trekking the beautiful streets and alleys of this very special village and communicating with its residents, the one saying that keeps on coming to mind is that “all politics is local”. How true!

Residents do grumble. However, you really cannot blame them. The seemingly endless political ranting from the represented political class about the very impalpable issue of “quality of life” is psychobabble for most of them. Who can blame them for switching off? The only reality they know and live is the one that surrounds them; the one that for many of them seems ever more mediocre and increasingly under threat of disruption and/or over-development. Residents look to their local council to make the little improvements necessary to improve their quality of life. The one impression that stuck with me during the last two weeks, at least in the locality I am contesting, is that residents no longer believe that the actions and policies of central government have much bearing on their day-to-day lives. Mrs Grima, who I spoke to last Monday, doesn’t give a hoot about the Lisbon agenda or the single currency. The only issue that concerns her is the fact that her access to public transport has been severely limited. She wants a solution to the problem in a reasonable time.

Residents believe and expect their local council to deliver, that is the expectation they have ever since local councils became a reality in 1994. The self-praise bestowed by successive Nationalist governments on the power and validity of local councils has exaggerated that expectation. Alfred Sant’s tri-yearly scoring of selective councils shoots that expectation to high heaven – in effect it is a message to local councils to shoot low, in the expectation that they will score high. How destructive! In such circumstances it would be darn easy for me (and every other Green candidate in Birkirkara, Zabbar, Sliema and Sannat) to blame it all on the PN majority in the Lija local council. I could even join the Sant diatribe and start awarding percentages. I won’t. It is not the way the Greens do politics.

Every time I walk into a living room and hear people’s complaints, I practise the politics of reason. Which leads me to explain to residents that local councils have very serious limitations, not least in Lija. Local councils cannot deliver as much as they should and could, primarily due to lack of power as well as a chronic lack of funds. When, for example, people complain about neighbours who leave the rubbish out overnight, they expect the local council to take action. Many of them do not realise that the only power afforded to local councils in such cases is to write to the “offending” party instructing him/her not to continue infringing regulations. Apart from that, everything else is left to the reasonableness and goodwill of the offending party. Local councils have few powers of enforcement. This could change if the government were to delegate more authority. It would make every local council more effective and enable them to manage their locality with more credibility. I cannot understand why government has not moved in this direction. The local council “experiment” has worked, despite the obvious limitations. It is time to move on and devolve more power; that is the democratic exercise required. The job is within the remit of Deputy Prime Minister Tonio Borg, who is responsible for local councils.

Local councils lack funds. In 2005, all the local councils of Malta and Gozo were allocated the apparently princely sum of Lm10.2 million. To some residents this may seem like a significant amount.

On a per capita basis though, it only amounts to Lm25 per annum. When compared to the total forecast spending by government in 2006 of, hold your breath, Lm1,006,403,000, it only amount to just over one per cent of total State expenditure. Compared to Malta’s GDP, it amounts to a miserly 0.6 per cent. The truth is that, by and large, our local councils are managing to do quite a lot with very little. Let us take Lija as an example. The council has some Lm80,000 per annum. Almost 75 per cent of this sum is taken up by “fixed expenditure” on items such as rent, payroll and rubbish collection. That means the council led by Major Naudi has, over the last three years, been left with a paltry Lm20,000 per annum to service the ad hoc needs of the locality. In effect, the same amount of money it takes nowadays to convert a two-bedroomed flat in shell form into a habitable home. It doesn’t surprise me that Minister Tonio Borg has never commissioned a study to compare the efficiency and effectiveness of local council spending to that of central government. Perhaps his colleague, Parliamentary Secretary Tonio Fenech, who bears much responsibility in deciding how much funds are to be allocated to local councils, would not like to know the results from such a study. He may just have to up the council funds with more money than he can find.

The Greens have always been responsible when making suggestions on increasing government expenditure. We understand the importance of containing the structural budget deficit and we do not expect a hefty increase in funds allocated to local councils. What we do expect however is that central government maintains the spending power of local councils by, at least, increasing their allocation the increase in the cost of living. At present, this is not happening. If our taxes in 2006 are set to increase by some 6.3 per cent over 2005, then an increase of 2.5 per cent to local councils from Lm10.2 million to Lm10.5 million should have been targeted. Instead, the increase in funding of all 63 local councils throughout Malta and Gozo between 2005 and 2006 amounts to (I thought there was a misprint in the Budget Estimates) a ridiculous Lm50,000 – 12 cents per capita!

Next time you think of complaining about your council’s inability to service your needs and meet your expectations, you should consider not venting your anger on your councillors who work with much hassle and no pay. Just blame it on the two Tonios!

Edward P. Fenech is spokesperson on finance, the economy and tourism of Alternattiva Demokratika – The Green Party.