Iklin residents have been left to deal with the dust and disorganisation of a haphazard car park right outside their homes as the government drags its feet on the future of the site.

The 1,700-square-metre open space in a residential area on the edge of the town, between Triq il-Klin and Triq San Mikiel, was originally earmarked for a public recreational area with a car park underneath.

The local council obtained a planning permit for the development in 2011 (renewed last year), but the Lands Department never issued a call for tenders for the project, envisioned as a public-private partnership.

Then, two years ago, the council was informed that JB Stores had been granted an encroachment permit to use the site as a parking area for its nearby outlet.

The mayor of Iklin, Anthony Dalli, told the Times of Malta that the site had since degenerated into a “car cemetery” – overrun with abandoned vehicles and untended vegetation.

READ: Iklin residents and Council oppose ODZ plans

Large amounts of construction waste on site are also causing problems of cleanliness and health for residents.

The “underutilisation” of public land, according to the mayor, does too little to allay the town’s growing parking problems while lowering property prices and depriving residents and their children of much needed public recreational spaces.

Mr Dalli said the council had met with Deborah Schembri, then the responsible parliamentary secretary, in May last year to discuss whether the government still supported the local council’s original proposal but received no feedback since then.

Lands Authority officials, however, informed the council that it would be possible to revert to the original proposal, for which there was already planning permission, if the government was willing.

The council’s proposal follows the site’s designation in the Iklin Area Policy Map for “a public recreation/sports area together with an underlying public parking area and a reservoir to serve the site’s landscaping requirements”.

The additional parking is meant to compensate for the loss of on-street parking along Triq in-Naxxar due to the ongoing works to widen the street.

The dispute over the car park is one of two planning battles the council is currently fighting as it also attempts to halt plans to build four villas in place of a single dilapidated farmhouse on ODZ land a few hundred metres away.

Some 120 residents have signed a petition urging the Planning Authority to turn down the application, which they say will create a precedent for further ODZ development on the edge of the town.