The contents of "practically an entire apartment" were dumped unceremoniously at the foot of the bring-in site in Qasam Barrani Street, Mellieħa.

The mayor, Robert Cutajar, woke up yesterday morning to find a wall unit, a sofa, shelves, an iron, ironing board, bicycle and empty paint buckets discarded at the bring-in site, located in the village core.

Mr Cutajar believes this is the work of vandals bent of spiting the council just days after Mellieħa was declared the cleanest locality on the island.

"This is blatant vandalism because we offer a free service to collect bulky refuse right outside people's door. It baffles me why anybody would bother to go through the ordeal of transporting all this."

The council planned to send a clear message to these "criminals" by setting up a CCTV camera in the area. Anybody caught dumping would be fined €2,300, he warned.

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