The passing on of local enforcement responsibilities to LESA and the introduction of a national rubbish collecting scheme is undermining local councils and undoing the efforts to decentralise governance, Floriana mayor Nigel Holland said.

In an interview with The Malta Independent on Sunday, Holland said that the handing over of local enforcement to LESA "had impoverished local councils" as income from fines had been taken away.

"Some would say that we want local guardians for the money but aren't the fines being issued anyways? Furthermore, if they are issued, isn't it better if they went towards the local council instead of an agency?" Holland said.

He added that the first thing he did upon being appointed mayor this year was to request a meeting with the chief executive of LESA and consequently found out that 5,800 fines were issued in Floriana, a year from 15 July 2023.

Holland said that his argument isn't just about maintaining the local councils and balancing the books. Floriana is a locality similar to Sliema or Valletta that is a commercial zone with many workers, whose burden, such as illegal parking, is suffered by the residents, he said.

So, with income from those fines one would be able to console the residents by saying: "It's true we are suffering, but at least the fines contribute to the community," Holland said. Giving an example, he said the synthetic turf of a playground had been funded by past fines and was a great hit with the community. In essence, he said that with the income from fines in the inconvenient reality the Floriana community lives in, "one makes up for the other".

Another example of the problems of going back to centralised governance may be seen in rubbish collection which became a national affair and may be seen as detracting from the local council's powers, Holland said.

He said that voter turnout for local council elections is going down and will keep on going down if local councils are not strengthened with expanded finances since, as things stand, the local council is unable to help the community due to lack of funds. He said that unless something is done, "voter turnout will keep on going down because the local council will become superfluous".

Returning to the issue of public cleanliness, Holland said that "the scourge of the country is rubbish and littering. It's a national scourge, not only in Floriana". He said that in the past, a local guardian could be asked to keep watch on a certain street but this can't be done nowadays since asking LESA for an officer to do an extraordinary duty is costly and the local council makes no return, keeping in mind the local council's poor income to begin with.

"I want Floriana to be spotless," he said, expressing his outrage that only two out of 5,800 fines were issued for rubbish misdemeanours. He said that the usual excuse of those on patrol is that "they must catch the person in the act" but challenged this by saying that he himself, by chance, catches people littering, not cleaning up after their dog, and so on. He added that of the 5,800 fines issued only "a few hundred" were for parking misdemeanours and "the residents are complaining because it's not enough to work the system. They are not helping us enough with the enforcement of residential parking".

Holland said that though CCTV is installed in Floriana by an agreement with LESA, he found out that LESA doesn't monitor it all the time. He mentioned that, as a result, while the cameras initially have a deterrent effect, after a week or two, things revert to the usual state because people realize they are not being continuously monitored. He added that he has reached his limit and, at the time of the interview, said that he will be proposing direct monitoring of the CCTV from the local council itself at the next council meeting.

"Again, I am outspoken when I meet with these entities and the police. Though community police are good people and try to do their duty, we never particularly got their help when it came to rubbish enforcement, practically nothing I'd say." Off the back of 30 years' experience in the local council, he gave his verdict on the rubbish problem: "The people know what they need to do. Initially education was needed so now every house has a rubbish collection flyer and even those who can't read can understand the diagrams. Those who are bringing out the rubbish at the wrong time are egoists and they are known. We know who persists in doing this and if you talk to them, they say that they don't care. Now, we need to move onto the next step: enforcement."

When Holland was asked why he always chose to remain an independent candidate for all these years, he began by giving some background in saying that prior to his contesting for the local council in 1994, he had already been active in Floriana for years in a variety of sectors as well as in the civic council, which he described as a "pressure group". Ultimately, he said, "I never felt that to contribute towards Floriana, I had to join a political party."

"It is easier to be elected by joining a party, rather than remaining independent, but that was my decision. It's not even because I don't embrace the philosophies of the big parties. I wished to remain free, without anyone pulling any strings from quarters outside of Floriana." At this point, he said that if he had joined one of the "big" parties he would have always been elected and "not by a little bit" adding, "now, I have been elected various times as an independent candidate and sometimes comfortably but, more often than not, I ranked at the bottom".

Holland said: "So there was certainly no electoral advantage in being an independent candidate but I wanted to keep my principles... That said, I was approached over the years, since my first election, by different parties, among them Alternattiva Demokratika." He remained steadfast in his principles however, and said, "There were people and even friends who told me to contest for a party saying 'So what? As long as you are elected' because they wanted me in the council and knew how difficult it was to contest as an independent candidate".

Holland explained his principles as follows, "when you contest with a party, you cannot just do it for the local council, you will be identified as being partisan in the wider sense. No one says, 'Look, Nigel Holland contested for X Party but not because he agrees with their ideologies, if they still exist, or programmes, but just for the local council. No. When you contest for a party, you contest for everything with the party. Meanwhile, I always kept the desire to contribute to the locality without too many ties."

When asked why he contested for the local council in the first place, years ago, Holland said that, with the dawn of local councils in Malta, "it seemed natural to join due to the body having certain powers and finances and it was a sort of progression [from the civic council]". He elaborated: "The local council proved to be a better tool with its resources and structure [than the civic committee]."

Holland said that, though one may complain about the financial allocations given to local councils nowadays, "the fact remains that before the local councils were introduced, it was difficult to get anything done in places like Floriana since we were small compared to other electoral districts. For the centralised government to do anything in the locality you'd have to work harder and put more pressure. With the introduction of the local councils, not only in Floriana, every locality was guaranteed a sum of money at least, so something could be done. My goal was to enter the local council since it could be a great tool to make some of the community's aspirations a reality."

As an independent councillor among partisan councillors, Holland was asked if he was outspoken. "I am very outspoken by nature, when it comes to councils and committees," referring to his involvement in the football, band and feast clubs in Floriana and continued, "I say what I believe in".

In Malta many of the decisions in the council are not motivated by any ideological or political sense because the day-to-day running is just common sense. "But there have been occasions where the parties impose on their councillors against their will on certain issues. I cannot live like that."

"The only strings that I will allow to pull me are the people of Floriana. To be independent is to have more space, to avoid pressures, to express what you wholly and genuinely believe in without anyone tapping on your shoulder and telling you what to do."

Holland said that this was not the original plan for the local councils in Malta since it was agreed that, though elections would be held to appoint councillors, following the election all partisanship would be gone and everyone would work together for the locality. He said: "So, we started off from the point that following elections, both parties work together, and technically portfolios are given to all local councillors not only to those who have the majority. So, following the election, the factions should break down."

That being said, Holland noted that though the parties are usually at loggerheads, "when the big parties wish, they do agree" and they started bringing in "frivolities". He said that though the parties initially didn't want division among the councillors, "we ended up with minority leaders like opposition leaders". In sum, he said, "so they say one thing, but they fall into the same rut of ridiculous partisan politics".

Holland highlighted the irony that, during the councillors' swearing-in ceremony, the Prime Minister, along with other prominent speakers, once again emphasised the importance of councillors working together, but he expressed doubts about the gap "between words and facts". He said "I'd prefer if they were honest and just said if he has a majority, he has responsibility of the locality."

The second part of the interview will be carried tomorrow