Fifty-five illegal billboards were removed from major arterial roads over the past days, Mepa said.

Twenty seven were removed from prominent sites in Triq Aldo Moro in Marsa, Triq Mikiel Anton Vassalli in St Julian's, Triq Burmarrad in St.Paul’s Bay and the coast road while a further 18 illegal billboards were removed by their respective owners.

More illegal billboards will be removed in the coming days, Mepa said.

The authority had set a June 20 deadline for the removal of the billboards, but it was largely ignored.

It then issued a new warning giving owners of illegal billboards another three days to remove the structures. Mepa had also said it would remove the billboards itself if the warning was ignored, at the expense of the owners and the advertisers.

In its statement today, Mepa also said that it had closed an enforcement case which was initiated in 2010 after a large agricultural site near the Addolorata Cemetery was illegally being used for the dumping of large quantities of industrial shipping equipment including scrapped vessels, containers and cables.

Following site inspections and warnings of imminent direct action, the site owner cleared the site and reverted the site to agricultural use.