‘Baffling bureaucracy forcing our restaurant out of business’
THE EXASPERATED owners of a Nicosia restaurant yesterday spoke of their being forced to operate illegally – even after the Supreme Court ordered the municipality to issue them with a licence.
Nicosia Municipality has refused to provide Greek restaurant Magiriko Elladites with a town-planning licence so they can run their business legally, even though the highest court in Cyprus had ordered them to.
Owners Christos Zachariades and Athanasios Froxylas, two business partners from Greece, opened Magiriko Elladites in the Ayios Antonios area on October 1, 2004.
“We submitted all the legal documents in order to obtain the necessary licensing,” Zachariades told the Mail yesterday.
In early 2005, the Nicosia Municipal Council met and unanimously approved the licensing of the shop.
“On April 19, 2005, the Municipal Engineer of the Nicosia municipality sent our company a letter and informed us that the examination of our application was complete and that the town-planning licence we asked for could be approved, if we bought the legally required seven parking spaces”.
In the summer of 2005, the two businessmen asked the Municipality to show leniency and delay the payment of the £35,000 that was needed for the parking spaces.
“On October 20, 2005, we received a letter from the Nicosia Mayor, saying that he accepted this regulation, just until the town-planning licence was ready”.
On October 26, 2005, the company Magiriko Elladites paid the Nicosia Municipality £35,000 in cash and awaited the finalisation of the licence, as well as the cancellation of the court case they were implicated in, due to the fact that they had been working unlicensed, in waiting for the municipality’s approval.
“Despite this, the Nicosia Municipality continued its legal action against us and on February 8, 2006, the case reached the Nicosia District Court,” explains Zachariades.
But the court ruled in the restaurant owners’ favour, without fining them for operating without town-planning licensing.
“On the contrary, the court ordered that the Nicosia Municipality issue us a town-planning licence – something that for unknown reasons has not yet happened.
“It is not right for any local authority to act in this high-handed and unfair manner.”
The Nicosia District court decision clearly stated that the local authority had committed to its decision [to issue the restaurant with a town-planning licence], which it had made known to the company owners.
“In the face of the defendants’ admission to the fact that they have suffered incredibly and that they have spent a lot of money in order to satisfy the demands of the local authorities, as well as the fact they have a clean criminal record, no fine was enforced on the defendants,” read the legal report.
“But despite all this, the Nicosia municipality has still not issued us with a town-planning licence,” said an appalled Zachariades.
The owners have even been accused of “releasing too many odours” into the neighbourhood – the restaurant is situated on one of the busiest traffic junctions in Nicosia – by someone Zachariades limited himself to calling “an alien factor with personal interests in the Nicosia municipality”.
For this reason Zachariades and his business partner installed an industrial unit that suppresses smoke and smells with special filters. The installation, approved by the European Union, cost the men thousands of pounds, says Zachariades.
“Our neighbours and customers are happy about the modernisation of the area and have told us that they accuse the Nicosia municipality of unequal treatment towards state justice,” Zachariades concluded.
Then, unbeknown to the partners, the Nicosia municipal council had another meeting on April 13, 2006, and revoked the licence that was due to be approved.
The municipality then obtained a warrant of mandamus for the premises to be restored to their initial use as a retail outlet.
“And by doing this, the municipality was aware that this couldn’t happen and that it would be destructive for us,” claimed Zachariades.
The Nicosia Municipality says its only enforcing the law.
Speaking to the Cyprus Mail yesterday, Nicosia Mayor Michalakis Zampelas said, “The Municipality has a mandamus court order that requires the Elladites to restore the restaurant to its former function [as a retail outlet].
“Following this court order and after consulting our legal advisers we have no other choice but enforce the court’s wishes.
“We went to the restaurant with the police to inform them and they reacted badly. The mayor and the municipality are obliged to the matter is now in the hands of the police.”
The mayor did not comment on the Supreme Court ruling.
Despite all this, Zachariades and Froxylias are still asking for the municipality’s cooperation, so that they can obtain the elusive licence.
The Magiriko Elladites restaurant still operates as normal today and the owners have again appealed the ruling the Supreme Court.
Excerpt from Ombudswoman Eliana Nicolaou’s report
“Due to the violation of the aforementioned legally established principles, the Nicosia municipality has a responsibility towards the plaintiffs.
It is suggested that within 15 days, measures are taken that will be in their best interests in order to restore the consequences that they have had to deal with.”
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