Developers should not be allowed to do whatever they please to get richer, the Labour Party’s CEO has argued.

“I’m not referring to particular cases or people, but pigs belong on farms and not our streets,” Randolph Debattista said on ONE TV’s Paperscan this morning. “Everyone enjoys making money but lets be careful.”

“As a government and a socialist party, we are obliged to control certain disgusting things (ħniżrijiet). Certain things cross the line and shouldn’t be allowed. I’m not referring to particular cases, but this is what citizens feel.”

Although Debattista said he wasn’t referring to particular cases, his intervention took place during a discussion on the Planning Authority’s recent approval of developer Joseph Portelli’s plans to convert an old ruin in the middle of the Qala countryside into a massive villa. Following the outcry, including from high-ranking Labour officials, Portelli voluntarily revoked the permit.

Debattista said he was pleased to see several PL activists publicly criticising this project.

“I enjoy seeing PL activists making their voices heard,” he said. “The moment someone within the PL feels as though they cannot speak up out of fear of repercussions will be the moment we’d have failed as a party. Thats what happened in the PN and we need to learn from that.”

“The budget included strong measures, such as a pledge to abolish single-use plastic, but then things like this [the villa permit] happened. I’m convinced that action will be taken and that there will be consultation on updating the policies.”