A contractor carrying out works on a Gozitan cemetery said he had stopped dumping rubble in the adjacent fields and had now cleared up most of it, following the intervention of the planning authority.

Anthony Bugeja, who is extending the St Mary Cemetery in Xewkija in a Gozo Ministry project, admitted he had been dumping inappropriate material on arable land. Under the planning permit, he should only have been depositing soil from the cemetery.

Times of Malta highlighted the issue in a report yesterday showing tons of building material and rubble covering the fields and being flattened by a bulldozer, in a photo taken recently.

Mr Bugeja yesterday made it clear the Gozo Ministry was not responsible as he was the contractor carrying out the works.

He said that after receiving complaints from Mepa a couple of weeks ago, he stopped dumping the excavated rubble on the fields and deposited only soil in order to enhance the agricultural potential of the land.

“It’s true that at first we were putting all the material on the fields. However, Mepa officials pointed out that no rubble should be dumped but only soil. We were even threatened with an enforcement notice.

“We took action immediately and now the situation is returning to normal,” he said.

Yesterday, Mepa also clarified that while the works carried out in the cemetery and the dumping of soil in adjacent fields were covered by a permit, it was now ensuring that everything was being done according to the permit’s provisions. The authority had originally said the issue fell under the competence of the Malta Resources Authority.

Alfred Baldacchino, a leading biodiversity expert, called for the area to be rehabilitated.

The project involves the building of some 370 new graves by the Gozo Ministry.

In recent years Gozo has seen an unprecedented increase in the building of new graves.

Apart from various exten-sions to the 12 ceme-teries on the island, Nadur recently extended its grave-yard by 600. The population of Gozo stands at 30,000. Around 250 deaths are registered every year on the island.