LYMBIA residents will hold a community meeting to decide whether to accept or reject the compensatory measures offered to them by the Interior Minister.
In a meeting between the two sides that took place yesterday afternoon, Interior Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis offered the community a number of compensation measures in exchange for their approval of the construction of the proposed waste disposal plant for the Larnaca-Famagusta area.
The prospect of moving some of the buildings of the site in the original plan was also discussed, however this was much less than the Lymbia village Council had expected.
“This was not what we had anticipated, the Minister focused on the money and compensatory measures we would receive in exchange for the expansion of our community and our health.
Any movement of the plant being talked about is by not more than 400 metres and we are talking about the same area, it is not any significant movement for us,” Michalis Georgiou, the Deputy Community leader of Lymbia said yesterday.
A spokesman for the Interior Minister said that they would be expecting a response from the Lymbia community soon.
“The Minister analysed the measures he was willing to offer to them as well as a proposition for some buildings to move slightly, according to what the current plan will allow. The members of the Council said that they would be holding a community meeting on the issue and we are expecting their reply probably on Thursday,” the spokesman said yesterday.
Michalis Georgiou told the Mail yesterday that no decision could be taken without holding the meeting.
“We heard everything the minister had to say but we cannot take a decision without having a community meeting. We must consult all the Lymbia residents before reaching a conclusion,” he said.
Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis had postponed building works on the site for one week for yesterday’s meeting to take place. Last week Mr. Sylikiotis had said that there was no way that the plant would be relocated due to the risk of losing a 30 million euro grant from the European Union.
“There is no chance that the site of the plant can be moved, as we run the risk of losing the money given to us by the European Union. I cannot make a decision like this, which would result in the Cypriot government losing money, something that would then affect the taxpayer,” he said.
Lymbia citizens carried out a number of protests last week, climaxing with a five-minute highway blockade on Sunday. They have openly declared their disproval to the waste disposal site, which would cater for the whole Larnaca-Famagusta area, claiming that they would not stop these demonstrations unless they finally got their way.
Villagers are also furious after the initial site of the plant was moved from Athienou to Lymbia under pressure from the Athienou community. This decision was taken by the government despite a report into the construction of the plant pointing to the area between Athienou and the village of Aradhippou as the ideal location for the waste disposal plant.
Yesterday also saw the Green party condemn the current government over the plans for the waste disposal plant, calling it an outdated process that most European countries had abandoned in favour of producing electricity from biomass. Criticism was also aimed at former Interior Minister and current Mayor of Limassol Andreas Christou on being a “fanatic supporter of the flawed government policy on dealing with solid waste”.
Christou himself responded by saying that this announcement by the Greens “indicates their ignorance on the whole matter” and that they will not be simply burying all rubbish but just any waste that cannot be processed any further.
