What started off, some years ago, as an alternative to mainly weak traffic management by the police authorities, has now become a monster that keeps getting bigger and bigger and is practically all based on the vast amount of fines it imposes on the citizens.
I came to this conclusion following an in depth study of the whole structure and its development over the years.
I can therefore express full agreement with the PN councillor who stated at the recent General Council the party held in Gozo: “Remove them immediately, or we will not be re-elected.”
I asked Dr Ian Micallef, the chairman of the Local Councils Association, how many tribunals there are.
He replied: “According to the relevant legal notice published under the Commissioners for Justice Act, there are nine tribunals situated at: Rabat (Gozo), Zurrieq, Zejtun, Sliema, Qormi, Fgura, Saint Paul’s Bay, Birkirkara and Valletta.”
Sources other than Dr Micallef who know full well how the system works, told me that every tribunal costs some Lm30,000 a month to run.
Dr Micallef was more nuanced in his reply. He said: “First of all a distinction has to be made between the costs incurred by a local tribunal and the costs incurred by a joint committee of local councils in a particular tribunal.
“The local tribunal costs are basically the honoraria payable to the Commissioner for Justice (paid by Director of Courts) and the fees paid to the prosecutor and clerk (paid by the local council / joint committee).
“The joint committee costs incurred independently from the tribunal sittings are the Authorised Officer’s fees, the warden agencies (based on the number of hours requested in the tender issued by the joint committees), the Communication costs (Ex: GPS, publications of lists in the daily newspapers), Datatrak IT services, i.e. the software system, employees (clerks), and office equipment and stationery. We do not have data in relation to each of the items mentioned above. However, a global amount can be provided if sufficient time is given to us to collect data from all joint committees concerned.”
My sources, however, told me that a prosecutor can get as much as Lm700 a month and a commissioner as much as Lm1,000 a month.
The costs of the tribunal are borne by the local councils, which are grouped in that tribunal according to a flexible formula based on the population and also on the location of the locality. In other words, a locality that ‘captures’ more traffic fines helps out the other localities through which not so much traffic passes.
All this shows clearly how the system is based on fines and almost nothing else. Consider too that while at the beginning a locality could opt out of the system, the law has been changed so that no locality can opt out of the tribunal, as localities such as Birzebbuga and Floriana found to their cost. If a locality were to opt out, the other neighbouring localities would have to fork out more money for the tribunal not to be out of pocket. A recent change has also meant that wardens commissioned by a particular locality can now operate within the whole tribunal district.
In the end, after collecting enough fines to be able to pay the hefty dues to the tribunal, each locality can keep a percentage of the fines.
There is incredible pressure to collect as much fines as possible, as otherwise this whole structure will collapse. A warden who is not vigilant enough or cunning enough to register his or her quota of fines faces pressure of possible redundancy. There is no hard and fast quota, but there sure is huge pressure to impose as many fines as possible.
Then there are the speed cameras. These have proved to be a veritable boon to local councils everywhere, although they have to share the proceeds, as even ADT and the company that imports them and sets them up (which is the same company that runs the wardens system in many cases) get a share.
This is easy money, a former councillor told me. You do not have to employ a warden and the money just rolls in.
According to a parliamentary reply by Minister Tonio Borg to Jason Azzopardi on 21 February, there were 30 speed cameras spread around the island by 24 January. But according to a list making the rounds last weekend, these have now gone up to 35.
In another parliamentary reply, Dr Borg said that from 1 to 21 December last year, from just one speed camera at the Regional Road tunnel, no less than Lm133,000 was collected, and the St Julian’s council got Lm26,000.
In all, 290,000 traffic fines were levied in 2004 and 259,000 from January to November last year, Dr Borg told Dr Azzopardi on 29 March. That works out at some two traffic fines per year per family.
Once you receive a fine, it is quite difficult to get out of paying it. Some people opt to go to the tribunal to contest it, but this is most times a wasted effort. With tribunals rushing through some 200 cases in a sitting, one can see the accent is on speed, and any objector, bar some cases, gets short shrift.
Then, again, not many people can afford to take a day’s leave to attend the tribunal and contest the fine, so many end up paying it through their teeth. The situation is worse if one gets a ticket in Gozo because one then has to go to Gozo to contest it. It has also been known that people who were never in Gozo in the first place get a ticket claiming they broke some traffic regulation or other while they were in Gozo.
Hypothetically, some sources have said, it is only through mass disobedience that such a ‘pernicious’ system can be broken. If enough people do not pay their fines as long as they can, perhaps till the day they have to renew their driving licence, the system will collapse since it is based on such a huge turnover of fines.
Which is why the government is being urged to change the system as quickly as it can. It does not seem that any real costing was done when the system was set up, or at least a political cost analysis. Would it not be cheaper in the long run giving a message that the traffic system is there for traffic management not to finance a cash cow, to double, treble or more the police system policing the roads than to carry such a system that many people perceive as just being there to fleece citizens and to build huge empires?
Besides, such is the perniciousness of the system that Labour-led councils, far from not using it or being nice to their residents, actually use it more and the government then gets blamed for it.
There was also the case of a Labour-led council which fined all those who went to vote during the last general election, thus meaning to reinforce popular anger against the warden system and the party that set it up.
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Speed and CCTV cameras
(An unofficial version)
1 Speed camera
Regional Road Bridge (Entering and exiting tunnels to / from bridge) St Julian’s –45 km/ph (28 mph)
2 CCTV camera
Opposite corner to City of London bar, Sliema.
3 CCTV camera
Fleur de Lys Square (Bus Terminus open area), Birkirkara.
No stopping/parking
4 CCTV camera
Opposite Gallerija, Shopping / Cinema Centre, Fgura.
No stopping/parking / Double Yellow line
5 CCTV camera
Down the square, opposite petrol station, Naxxar.
No stopping/parking
6 CCTV camera
Side to square, just above police station, Balzan.
7 CCTV camera
Triq il-Papa Alessandru VII – Large clearing opposite Zmerc Pub, Balzan. (overlooking the skips).
8 CCTV camera
Road going up towards the tunnels from Spinola Bay, Sliema.
9 CCTV camera
Tal-Barrani Road (In front of 4T’s Pastizzerija’s junction), Zejtun/Ghaxaq.
10 Speed camera
Opposite Beach Haven beach club, up towards Mistra – mid Xemxija
Hill, St Paul’s Bay. 40 km/ph (25 mph)
11 CCTV camera
Side of St Luke’s Hospital main gate, next to Detox Centre, Guardamangia Hill, Hamrun.
12 CCTV camera
In front of Cauchi’s in Mosta Square, Mosta.
13 CCTV camera
In front of the Peace Band Club in Naxxar Square, Naxxar.
14 CCTV camera
Centre strip near Turkish fast food at Sliema seafront, Sliema.
15 CCTV camera
In front of St Michael’s School, Pembroke.
16 CCTV camera
Mid way up/down Testaferrata Street, opposite Akkwarjumalfa, in corner of ex Petroni showroom, opposite ex Honda showroom, Gzira.
17 CCTV camera
In front of McDonald’s, next to traffic lights, Birkirkara.
18 CCTV camera
Opposite Beach Haven beach club, Xemxija hill, on top of the existing speed camera, St Paul’s Bay.
.19 CCTV camera
At the back ofImmaculate Conception Church Hamrun (on top of a grocery shop), Hamrun.
20 CCTV camera
In Hamrun High Street in front of Maxims (just beneath the local council balcony).
21 CCTV camera
On the side of il-Knisja l-Qadima (on corner of building opposite
church), Birkirkara.
22 CCTV camera
St Helen’s Church Square – Near Bagri Band Club, Birkirkara.
Double yellow line / No Parking
23 CCTV camera
Outside of HSBC Bank (on left side), Fleur-de-Lys.
24 CCTV camera
Mriehel Bypass, direction Rabat, exactly in the middle of it, hung
from an electricity pole. Birkirkara.
.25 CCTV camera
Ugo Mifsud Street, Ta Xbiex, between Testaferrata Street and Abate
Rigord Road (road leading from Ta Xbiex to Msida across estate), some
150 metres before the Opel showroom in Ta Xbiex.
26 CCTV camera
Santa Lucija Roundabout, just inside Santa Lucija from road leading to Luqa.
Correct roundabout direction
27 CCTV camera
Santa Lucija Roundabout, just outside Santa Lucija near telephone box
Santa Lucija
Double yellow line / No Parking
28 Speed camera
Mriehel – Qormi Bypass, close to Gasan showroom on opposite
side, near Pamsons. Birkirkara.
80 Km/h (50 mph)
29 CCTV camera
Near Maria Assumpta School / Guardian Angel Upper Left Side, Hamrun.
30 CCTV camera
In front of sixth form gate and White Arrow, Msida.
Double Line / No Parking
31
CCTV camera
Local restaurant in front of the church,Marsaxlokk.
32 Speed camera
Garibaldi Street, Marsa
80 Km/h (50 mph)
33 Speed camera
Burmarrad Road, down the road from Mosta
80 Km/h (50 mph)
34 Speed camera
Zebbug Road on the way to Rabat only 70 kph
35 CCTV camera
Paola Square, Paola – exactly in front of BJM outlet.