The St Paul’s Bay council should make a public apology for dumping silt into a swimming area, the Malta Environment and Planning Authority said.

Sunbathers were horrified last week when a truck carrying a full load of silt, replete with seabed rubbish, was dropped into the bathers’ area after having been removed from a Qawra inlet.

Since then the local council and Mepa have been trading accusations. The council claimed that the mess was a problem of Mepa’s own making as the authority had refused the council’s suggestion to use the sand elsewhere on land. But Mepa said the council failed to obtain the necessary authorisation before dumping the sand.

Last Saturday, the council issued e-mail correspondence in an effort to back up its case.

However, yesterday the authority retaliated and insisted it had not given its go-ahead for the dumping and the council was “trying to deceive the public” by releasing selections from e-mail correspondence to give that impression.

“The council is... only publishing the preliminary e-mail of July 10 and not publishing all the correspondence including the most relevant ones,” Mepa said.

It added that, in any case, the published e-mail showed that discussions were still ongoing and there was no final permit.

“This is particularly clear when in the e-mail the authority informed the council that: ‘Thus to be able to process your application further, please provide us with site plan for an alternative site for the deposition of sand’.”

Mepa called on the council to stop its “blaming game” and make a public apology for its mistake.

The silt has now been excavated from the sea for a second time and stored temporarily at an undisclosed location in Qawra, until a long-term solution can be found.