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About this time last year, the St Paul’s Bay local council had decided to reserve a space of four parking spaces at St. Mary street Bugibba for the benefit of the shops, when there are no shops in this street.
Last year I complained to the council and asked why these spaces were taken away from the residents and the general public.
The council told me the spaces were for the trucks that load and unload from the shops that are on the promenade.
A year had passed, and during this year I never saw one single truck loading or unloading there, but other cars park there while being served at the bank nearby. It is a perfect trap, that while these spaces are seen empty people park there, and proceed to the bank to be served. Only the local council can tell what revenue this spot collects, if not; somebody else can. This all happens even though there is a sign that says parking is only allowed for loading and unloading at certain hours.
Recently, I was the victim. I own a flat just opposite this space, and I had to load a small table and three chairs to take them for repairs. As I live in Mosta I took my van to load the furniture but since I could not park in one of the parking bays as these were all taken I parked my van at this loading/unloading space.
I went inside to bring the furniture to the van and made a cup of coffee. When finished with my coffee I took my first two chairs to the van, but I noticed that I had a ticket on the windscreen saying ‘Kontravvenzjoni ta sinjal tat-traffiku.’ One must be a warden to decide that, and a stupid one to book a person and charge him Lm10.
Going back to Mosta, near what used to be ‘Villa Preziosi’ I noticed a warden with two stripes on his shoulder; he was talking to a female warden who was in the car.
I asked them whether I could ask a question and, he said of course!
I told him the story which I am not going to repeat, I said that I parked my van in a space reserved for loading/unloading, because I wanted to load but as I was inside the flat, one warden had booked me. He told me that space is for commercial purposes only.
I told him “Excuse me, Sir but do you mean to tell me that if I need to carry something for or from my flat, I have to telephone the furniture movers to do the job, when I can do it myself, and I have the transport vehicle to do it?”
Then he told me, the parking signs were put up by the Council, not by wardens, they only follow orders. That space is for trucks and vans; I told him I was with a van and still I was booked.
He looked at the van and said that since it is a commercial vehicle and you shouldn’t have been booked. I told him that my van is not commercial, but it is a van, like any other commercial one.
My van is for my own purposes, I do not lease it, and I do not work with it.
Although the business community is the ‘mutur ta Malta,’ to conclude that the space is to be used for shop owners only, is unfair when the space should be made available for the benefit of the general public. People should understand that especially now, on the eve of the elections of the local council.
The warden inspector told me to contest it at the tribunal, I said “What for! It is just a waste of time, and why should I waste two to three hours because a warden in his infinite wisdom decided that I was in the wrong.
I am sure that one needs more than that number of hours to convince him, if one is lucky.
Then he said make a copy of the ticket, a copy of the van log book, and a small story of what happened and take it to the Mosta local council.
These wardens have got a place there, I never knew about it. I said, very well and thanked him, but on the way to Mosta, I said to myself I better go to the Mosta place, before I do what the warden told me, and so I did. I was right, when I started to talk one lady told me, that they have no authority and if I want to complain about something contest it at the tribunal.
You can never win with this kind of people; one only has to thank those persons who burden us in the name of discipline.
Joseph Muscat
Mosta
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