Paceville businessmen 'notorious for doing as they please'

Paceville businessmen are “notorious for doing as they please” in a currently where “successive governments repeatedly avoided enforcing basic laws”, Alternattiva Demokratika secretary general Ralph Cassar said.

Addressing a press conference outside the PlusOne club in Paceville, Cassar said that the police were overstretched and need resources to perform their duties in Paceville.

“Above all the Paceville incident shows that successive government’s have repeatedly avoided enforcing basic safety laws and let the country be run by certain businessmen, not least the Paceville businessmen who are notorious for doing as they please,” Cassar said.

The Green party said the government should have at least implemented the 2012 Paceville report drawn up by Parliament.

“We are sending a copy of the recommendations in this report to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, just in case he forgot about it,” Cassar said.

Alternattiva Demokratika Żgħażagħ said it was concerned by the government’s decision to allow only 14 days of consultation on Paceville while at the same time ignoring the 2012 report. 

ADŻ spokesperson Marc Andrea Cassar said: “It is shameful that the 2012 parliamentary committee report was left to gather dust on the shelves and now only 14 days were given for the public’s recommendations. This shows that government is not really interested in tackling the issue.”

He said, that ADŻ was also concerned by the lack of changes despite the Social Affairs Committee’s proposals. “The lack of implementation of many of these measures is unacceptable. There might have been less casualties three weeks ago, had these suggestions been implemented earlier.”

ADŻ said it agreed with having an ambulance on standby in Paceville due to the large amount of people present in Paceville. Police, it said, should be given specific training in crowd control.

Moreover, it said, measures protecting neighbours from noise pollution have yet to be introduced.

“Even though decibel meters were suggested in the report, nothing of the sort has been installed as of yet. The people living in areas close to Paceville should not be subjected to loud noise every night.”