In September 2007, Rural Affairs and Environment Minister George Pullicino announced that the Malta Environment and Planning Authority's (Mepa) scheme to give financial assistance in the maintenance, or replacement, of old timber balconies was being extended to all localities in Malta and Gozo. The scheme, which had been originally launched in 1996, had already had over 300 beneficiaries. This time the benefit offered was 60 per cent of expenses incurred, up to a maximum of €1,397.62.

There was a strong response from the public, among whom was my 68-year-old mother, who is both a widow and pensioner. Like many others, it was the agreement with Mepa for the reimbursement of part of the expenses that convinced her to carry out the necessary work on her timber balcony. So successful was the scheme that most of the carpenters she approached said they were too taken up by work and would only be available months later. Mepa referred to it as "an unprecedented demand" and refused to fix a budget until the evaluation of all applications was finalised.

The absence of any fund to cover the costs involved may have been what led Evarist Bartolo MP to liken this grant to a pre-electoral sweetener, seeing that we were but a few months away from polling day. Eventually, in May 2008 (and four months after applications had closed), Mepa announced that over €1,000,000 had been committed.

Since a year and a half later 500 applicants (including my mother) are still awaiting the agreed refund, I must address the following questions to Minister Pullicino and Mepa:

1. How many of the applicants for the 2007 scheme were entitled to a grant?

2. How many have in fact been paid?

3. How much of the budgeted €1,000,000+ has been given to applicants?

4. Who is refusing to issue or sign the long-overdue cheques?

5. When are all the applicants going to be reimbursed?

While expecting a prompt response to all the above questions, I encourage all those readers affected by this excessive delay to e-mail me at sandro@79664664.com, with their name and surname, date of Mepa's acceptance letter and amount of refund due. This is to prepare for the next step should the authorities default on their obligations.