This is to bring to the attention of the authorities concerned the plight of the young generation of Iklin, made up of boys and girls who do not have any facility to practise any kind of sport in the locality.

They must make use of the facilities sited in the nearby village of Lija. However, it is regrettable and worse that since 2001 a site at Iklin has been earmarked for development into a football ground and other sports amenities.

The Lija/Iklin nursery that caters for boys and girls is fast becoming one of the prominent football nurseries in the central part of Malta. It desperately needs such development to cater for the ever-increasing number of its members, presently in excess of 200 and besides, as well as for the ladies football team that is participating in the MFA women's league.

The Iklin local council has striven in the past years to make this dream come true but it seems that they always have to face an insurmountable wall of bureaucracy. It has been months since it was rumoured that we were only waiting for the issue of the tender specifications for the construction of the site into an underground car park and an overlying football pitch. But nothing has materialised, to the detriment of the rights of Iklin residents who deserve to have similar facilities to those that are available in practically all localities in Malta and Gozo.

This is an appeal to the authorities concerned, whether they be the Land Department or the responsible ministry, to take decisive action to give to our residents what is theirs by right especially if, as in our case, there is the possibility of doing so - the site has been available for the last seven years!