I refer to your report about the court decree pursuant to the request by the Marsa Sports Club for the issue of a warrant of prohibitory injunction against the Commissioner of Police and the persons responsible for the Santa Venera feast fireworks (TMI, 25 July).

In the report you stated that the court said that there was no law regulating noise pollution. This is not correct.

What the court said was that it was not aware of any law which regulated noise pollution caused by the type of petards used. In fact the court stated:

“Minkejja l-kliem sabih tal-A.L. 193 tal-2004 u d-direttiva tal-Unjoni Ewropeja 2002/49/EC, din il-Qorti ma taf b’ebda regolamenti li b’xi mod jirregolaw dak li huwa effettivament “noise pollution” fi grad elevat minhabba it-tip ta’ murtali li jintuzaw.”

Aldo Testone

Registrar

Civil Courts and Tribunals

Editor’s note: Due to the courts thinking that our readers can decipher the above without any help, TMI feels a translation from Legalese to English (to the best of our ability) is necessary.

“Despite the beautiful words of the Legal Notice 193 of 2004 and the European Union Directive 2002/49/EC, this court knows of no regulations that in any form regulate what is effectively elevated levels of ‘noise pollution’ because of the type of petards used.”

In other words, if we have understood this ambiguity correctly, there are laws to regulate noise pollution, but no laws regulating the worst offenders – petards (according to type…).

So, are we correct in thinking that if one were to blast a stereo at full volume it would be tantamount to pollution while on the other hand, if one were to set off thousands of small petards, it is not? TMI apologises for the mistake, although we are still not much the wiser.