Shopkeepers concerned at Makarios pedestrianisation plan

By Martin Hellicar

PLANS to pedestrianise Nicosia’s busiest shopping thoroughfare, Makarios Avenue, got a chilly reception from shopkeepers’ union Povek yesterday.

In an interview published in Machi newspaper yesterday, Nicosia mayor Lellos Demetriades, a strong advocate of pedestrianisation, said cars would be barred from Makarios avenue “in a few years time.” Demetriades said Nikis avenue would be widened to cater for out-of-town traffic.

But Povek representative Tryfonas Neocleous told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that the plan to extend car-free shopping areas in the capital could only work if the whole Nicosia master plan was implemented. This could only happen if the green line dividing the town was no longer there, he said.

Povek opposes pedestrianisation, blaming it for the downturn in business on the old city’s two pedestrianised shopping streets – Ledra and Onasagorou.

“If Makarios avenue was pedestrianised too I believe there would be problems unless the whole Nicosia master plan could be implemented,” Neocleous said.

“There has to be reunification of the capital before the master plan can work,” the union man said.

He predicted that Makarios Avenue shopkeepers would not be happy to see their road pedestrianised. Most Ledra and Onasagorou street shop owners have been pushing for the return of cars to their narrow streets.

Demetriades was abroad and unavailable for comment yesterday, but the municipality did issue a statement later in the day.

The town Hall was keen to point out that pedestrianisation of Makarios Avenue was a long way off.

“Nothing is going to change over the coming four or five years, as the (master) plan is first due for reassessment and adjustment in line with the conditions as they develop during the intervening time,” the statement read.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.