I am writing to express my concern at the rundown state of my hometown Ħamrun.

Although I live in the UK, I am a frequent visitor and over the past years I have seen our once prosperous, clean and popular town degenerate into a dirty and run down place.

One of the main problems is that Ħamrun is totally surrounded by other towns or villages and is basically all built-up. However, once we accept these problems, the council must plan ahead to improve the locality.

Unlike other councils we are not a seaside resort and therefore do not have the tourist revenue coming in. We also obviously tend to be forgotten by the government when it comes to dishing out funds to improve the locality.

Let’s just take a minute and analyse the pros and cons. We have a major traffic problem going through the heart of our town and an even bigger one relating to parking.

I know that there is already some sort of scheme which lets Ħamrun residents park in certain places. Why don’t we go a step further and issue parking permits for one vehicle per household on every road thus guaranteeing residents of a parking place? This will obviously involve a yearly fee but in itself will provide an income for the council.

The old market (is-suq) has been lying derelict since I was a teenager, which is more than a few years. I am not sure if there is anything being done to it at the moment but it’s an ideal place to develop into an underground car park with a public garden or a shopping piazza on top. Again this would generate revenue for the local council.

Then we have St Joseph High Road. This was once upon a time renowned for its diverse shopping. What have we got now? Well, apart from a couple of betting places that we have heard about close to the police station we have boarded up shops which have long ceased trading, a few other run-of-the-mill shops and alas even veggie retail outlets. While I have nothing against a greengrocer outlet it’s a pity that in this once glorious shopping epicentre of the island we now have these outlets instead of high class, big name outlets that would attract tourists and Maltese from other parts of the island.

Last, but not least, we need to control planning permissions properly without prejudice and make sure that anybody undertaking alterations is responsible for keeping the area safe and clean for other road users not just while the work is going on but more crucially afterwards. This brings to mind the building work being undertaken where the Hollywood cinema used to be. It is such an eyesore. Why has the front not been completely boarded up while the work is going on?

I am proud of being from Ħamrun and would love to see our town back to its old glory.