B-Day comes and goes, but the billboards are still there

YESTERDAY was the deadline for the removal of illegal billboards lining our roads, but there was no sign of anything being done about it.

The Sunday Mail did see workmen at one billboard in Nicosia – but they were replacing the advertisement, not taking down the billboard itself.

Communications and Works Minister Kikis Kazamias has said he is determined that the law to take down illegal billboards lining our roads will be implemented.
And he has warned local authorities and billboard advertising companies they will suffer the consequences if they do not comply.

Green Party leader Giorgos Perdikis said yesterday he hopes the minister will keep his promise.

Perdikis has always been opposed to billboards lining the roads, and last month he denounced the government’s decision to allow another month before the unsightly billboards had to be taken down.

He says the law passed by the House of Representatives should actually have been implemented by June 13 — nearly six months ago.

Yesterday he told the Sunday Mail that he hopes the legislation will be now be enforced. Speaking from Greece, he said the minister must now act.

“The new date for the removal of illegal billboards was set for November the first. I can only hope that Kikis Kazamias will now enforce the law of abolishing billboards,” said Perdikis, who says his main concern is the safety of drivers.
The new law restricts the size of billboards and stipulates that all billboards that are less than 40 metres away from the edge of the highway and three metres from the kerb on streets be removed.
Billboards must also be three kilometres apart on the highway. For example, it is estimated that 75 per cent of all billboards lining the Nicosia to Larnaca highway will have to be taken down.

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.