St Julian’s mayor Albert Buttigieg wants assurances that the hotel forking out the cost of replenishing Balluta Bay with sand will not want anything in return.
“While the Local Council was ignored and not informed of the dealings with a private commercial vested entity to replenish the beach, we need to be assured that the bay will not be privatised, in part or in full,” he said.
Mr Buttigieg was reacting to the announcement that Balluta Bay was tba across the island that would be replenished with sand over the coming weeks.
The miniscule St George’s Bay in Birżebbuġa (outside the Al Fresco restaurant), and Għar l-Aħmar Bay in Marsaxlokk, will also be ex-tended by some 25 metres using sand dredged up from the seabed.
While these two bays would be replenished by the government, Balluta Bay, which had already been included in a pilot project last year, will be funded by the nearby Marriott Hotel (formerly Le Méridien).
Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi last week announced that the hotel owner had pledged to rejuvenate the bay for the next five years.
The sand at Balluta Bay had largely disappeared beneath the surface just a few months after the €110,000-replenishment pilot project…
