Workers engaged by the Planning Authority on Tuesday morning removed truckloads of debris dumped illegally in a field between Mdina and Mtarfa.

The site, within a scheduled Area of High Landscape Value protecting Mdina, covers an area of approximately 7,000m².

The authority said that although dumping at this site had ceased for several years, it restarted recently following a transfer of land ownership.

The authority had ordered the owners to remove the dumped material, subject to daily fines.

The debris dumped in the field near Mtarfa.

The contravener submitted a sanctioning application, seeking to obtain permission to retain the dumped material on site. The application was refused by the Planning Authority, and an appeal was dismissed by the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal.

Late in 2022, the contravener approached the PA expressing the intention to address the enforcement notices issued on the site. The PA agreed to a step-by-step process which ensured that the excessive illegal dumping would be removed from the site by the contravener. But over the past two weeks the contravener dumped further material on site, the PA said.

The material is now being removed by the PA at the contravener's expense and being replaced by soil.