A bulldozer was deployed at Ramla l-Hamra at 4 a.m. a few days ago to clear the pebbles in what should be a strictly protected area and a Blue Flag beach, environmentalist Alan Deidun has complained on Facebook.

This, he said, was a job which could easily have been done by hand.

"The bulldozer literally excavated the sand just a few centimetres away from the sand dune and the Roman Villa remains."

He said all this happened with the blessing of Mepa (not of the EPD environment protection directorate).

"I can only guess how genuinely frustrated some people at Mepa and within NGOs are feeling at the moment, seeing how they are being run over roughshod by those with power," Dr Deidun said.

He expressed fear that the removal of the pebbles would lead to beach erosion.

More in his column in The Sunday Times of Malta this Sunday.