The Waste Recycling Plant at Sant'Antin, Marsascala, could be fully operational before an appeal on its building is decided, the Committee against the Recycling Plant has complained.

It said that a report by the Mepa audit officer into the granting of the permit for the plant had not been published because of the appeal, yet four years' on, the appeal was still pending.

The Board of Appeal was last scheduled to meet in December but that hearing was put off to March.

"Despite our objections and the appeal, the authorities have gone ahead with the building of the plant. It is now being said that the plant will be fully in use early this year. Should that be the case it would mean that while the appeal remains pending, the plant would be completed and fully functioning," the Committee said.

"If this is not an injustice, one wonders what is," it added.

The Committee asked the Mepa audit-officer to intervene.