Wedding near Red Tower leaves site littered with waste; Rangers file police report
A wedding held near the Red Tower in Mellieha left the site littered with waste for the whole of Sunday, prompting the Malta Ranger Unit to expose the case on social media and file a police report.The Malta Ranger Unit – which is an independent
A wedding held near the Red Tower in Mellieha left the site littered with waste for the whole of Sunday, prompting the Malta Ranger Unit to expose the case on social media and file a police report.
The Malta Ranger Unit – which is an independent NGO and patrol rural areas in Malta, Gozo and Comino – shared an almost two-minute video showing the area around the iconic Red Tower littered with bags filled with waste, rotting food, trucks, kitchenware and equipment and wiring.
Sharing the video, which was filmed on Sunday, the MRU said that the event had surpassed the 24-hour deadline stipulated in the law to clean up after the event. Social media activity shows that the wedding happened on Saturday evening.
“Due to being in the vicinity of a Heritage site and also to litter going into the protected nature site, the MRU has filed a report for aggravating circumstances both with the Environmental Protection Unit Police and ERA - Environment & Resources Authority,” the NGO said.
It further added that throughout the weekend rangers had called the ERA three times to report the situation, and that on Sunday evening they witnessed tourists watching the sunset whilst sitting amongst the leftover trash bags outside the event area.
“What you see in this video was left on site all Sunday and throughout the night. The stench on site from the food left in full sun was horrendous,” the NGO said.
The MRU said that it has documented the littering for three days and will provide the authorities with the sufficient evidence to take legal actions.
“Events in the Public space, should never be done at the expense of wildlife and degrade habitats. In addition it was done at a Heritage site.”
The groom – David Debono from db Group – told the Times of Malta that the event was covered with all the relative permits and said that the video was misleading because it had been shot very early on Monday morning before work started.
“The permits included that the place is cleared and cleaned within an established period and, in fact, this morning, the first working day after the event, our contractors were on site to carry out the clearing process,” Debono told the newspaper.
He said that contractors had started to clean-up the area on “the first working day after the event.”
However the MRU countered and said that the video is not misleading and that it was filmed a whole day after the event finished and showed the reality of the situation.
“Litter was not contained in any way. The majority of the litter was in bags that weren't tied or simply all over the ground vegetation both within the venue area and outside. The amount of rats on site during the night was horrendous, with the rotting food luring them to the site,” the MRU said.
The NGO also noted that the subsidiary legislation governing such cases doesn’t speak about working days but simply about 24 hours after the event has finished. “We can't see any sufficient attempts to keep the site clean with just 3 small wheelie bins and the majority of the litter outside them,” the NGO said.
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