Marthese Portelli resigns from her post on Planning Authority Board

Nationalist Party MP Marthese Portelli has resigned from her post on the Planning Authority Board, saying that the Planning Authority has been taken over by people who did not have the common good at heart.

"As time goes by, it becomes increasingly clear that the PA has been overwhelmed by forces and people who keep ignoring the common good and continue to work for the benefit of the few... it has become seized by people who only look at the political conveniences and their personal friendships," she said.

She filed her resignation letter on Sunday and addressed Infrastructure Minister Ian Borg, saying that she was no longer ready to form part of an entity that did not respect the people.

Her resignation comes in the wake of a very controversial decision taken by the PA to allow rundown rooms in a virgin area in Qala to be transformed into an opulent villa. The reason cited for such a decision was a 2014 policy reform that allows for any countryside ruin to be converted into a villa if the owner proves that the ruin once served as a permanent dwelling.

"We are faced today with circumstances and situations that are resulting in a systemised institutional breakdown. This is why I am resigning today," Portelli said.

She added that she was taking this decision with loyalty to the oath she had taken as an MP and after she had consulted Opposition Leader Adrian Delia who, she said, fully supported her decision.

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