(Adds reply by the Secretariat for Tourism)

The Labour spokesman on tourism, Marie Louise Coleiro-Preca said today that the people deserved an explanation as to why the Malta Tourism Authority had decided to close the perched beach at Bugibba.

She said it was very rare for a tourism destination to close one of its beaches without a serious reason.

The government, she said, should explain if work on this beach had been done properly, how much it had cost, and how much was being spent to replenish the beach with sand.

The Tourism Secretariat in a reaction to the MLP statement, explained that the perched beach was not a natural beach but an artificial one using imported sand.

The secretariat said that on September 15 the MTA removed the pontoons, ladders and wooden walkways on the beach and moved the sand on the foreshore to the back part of the beach so as to avoid damage by bad weather.

These, the secretariat said, were precautionary measures and the items and the sand would be placed back before summer set in.

The government praised the MTA for taking these precautions, since it had no control over the weather.