Labour leader Alfred Sant and the party's candidates on the 12th district as well as its candidates for the Mellieħa local election went on a walkabout of the locality yesterday.

Speaking to reporters, Dr Sant said that more focused work on the tourist identity of Mellieħa was needed as part of a commitment to increase employment to aim for more tourists all year round.

The Labour leader praised the outgoing Labour-led Mellieħa council saying it had carried out its promises. On the other hand, he pressed the Government to implement certain projects it kept postponing, such as the home for the elderly.

He said that the party has held discussions with the council on a Labour proposal to carry out two projects with each council with the help of the Government.

The Mellieħa council had already identified its projects and had requested a new public library/informatics centre near the school and the restoration of the Marfa palace, which was in a state of disrepair. It wanted to transform the palace into a youth hostel to help encourage new tourism activity in winter. Yesterday's tour took the Labour delegation to a bakery, a pizzeria, and a souvenir shop, among others. Some of the shop keepers were more welcoming than others and Dr Sant was given a nicely-wrapped parting gift by a jeweller.

With reference to the article 'Labour disagrees with Chamber of Commerce over public holidays issue' in yesterday's The Times, the paragraph which read: "Compared to other EU countries, the burden of wage costs in Malta had dropped and, according to government statistics, the gross income increase per employee was lower than the increase in pensions", should have read "Compared to other EU countries, the burden of wage costs in Malta had dropped and, according to government statistics, the gross income increase per employee was lower than the increase in the cost of living."