Updated 3pm

Gates at Manoel Island have been slammed shut and new padlocks installed, one day after development consortium MIDI said it would taking action to safeguard its interests. 

Although gates have been shut, Kamp Emerġenza Ambjent activists said that a clean-up of the site planned for this coming Saturday would still go ahead as planned. 

The organisation invited the public and organisations to take part and support the initiative.

Gzira mayor Conrad Borg Manche said that if gates remained closed on Saturday, the clean-up would turn into a protest.

He said MIDI's claims that it had restored Fort Manoel were only half-true.

"They fixed the parts which can be seen, but didn't do anything to the rest. The fort's sides and rear remained untouched."

He said garbage in the area had been left there for years.

MIDI's claims that activists had committed acts of vandalism did not come as a surprise to the Gzira mayor.

"They were bound to say so, I could see it coming. I was very careful to document everything with photos," Mr Borg Manche said, adding that the only damage he had come across had been there long before activists opened up access.

Kamp Emerġenza Ambjent last Saturday reinstated access to Manoel Island, claiming MIDI had no right to close it. Activists broke locks and set up camp in the previously restricted area, and invited the public to visit the area and take a dip in the sea.

MIDI however has denied activists' claims and accused them of having vandalised Fort Manoel - a claim Kamp Emerġenza Ambjent and the Mr Borg Manche said is nonsense. (See video above).

Photo: Kurt Sansone