Local councils are known for acting high and mighty with residents, although many of them end up delivering far less than they promise. It is often the case that councils end up embroiled in their own bureaucracy and that of the central authorities, and implement a percentage of what they set out to achieve in their three-year term.

Malta Labour Party leader Alfred Sant would have us believe that the Labour-led councils deliver over 90 per cent of their electoral programme, while those with a Nationalist mayor barely pass the halfway mark. This is hard to believe, although Dr Sant continues such an exercise in spite of the fact that his assessment lacks so much credibility.

But this is not the point at stake today. What irks so many residents is that local councils are, generally speaking, slow to react and take so long to do what they are supposed to do, and this to the detriment of the locality and of its residents in particular.

Both the government and the opposition are very quick to criticise local councils led by the opposing party each time some deficiency crops up, more so when an election in that locality is approaching fast. But, as a general rule, the two major political parties are wary in their attacks of local councils as an institution and as one, whole system of local government.

And therefore when politicians slam local councils in general – and these occasions have been few and far between – such an outburst deserves to be given attention because it means that the politician concerned is at the end of his or her tether.

The last such politician to openly condemn the behaviour of local councils was Rural Affairs and Environment Minister George Pullicino. Addressing journalists during a visit to the second of five civic amenity sites (CAS) which was opened at Mriehel, Mr Pullicino did not hide his disappointment that local councils are holding the government back from implementing a better waste management system which, after all, would go a long way to improve the environment we live in.

Mr Pullicino took local councils to task for failing in a duty which he said they owed to their constituents, saying that WasteServ, the waste management company, has provided the bins for bring-in sites but there were councils that were not implementing the concept and refusing this service to their residents.

The government had planned to have over 400 bring-in sites around Malta and Gozo but only 240 were up and running. And, according to Mr Pullicino, it is the councils’ fault that such a system is not fully-functional.

Mr Pullicino then warned local councils that unless they get their act together, the government will make the decision for them and determine the location for the bring-in sites where it deemed fit.

It might be considered as a threat, and if the government does intervene directly in the matter, we are sure that many will then pounce on the administration and describe it as being dictatorial and anti-democratic. Because, unfortunately, things do work this way in Malta.

Yet, it must be said that the government should take the bull by the horns in this matter, if local councils fail to comply. The government is giving councils the chance to be the ones to decide on what to do in their locality, but if they drag their feet and refuse to come up with a decision, then there will be no other alternative for the government to move on with its reform in waste collection and management.

If bring-in sites would have brought in extra cash for local councils, we are sure that all of them would have pounced on the idea and selected the location the day after they were told to do so. But local councils seem to be less efficient in areas that do not include revenue collecting.

The government is therefore correct in pushing them to act and, unless they do so, would do well to take matters in hand.