THE SUPREME Court has annulled the town planning permit for the construction of the Super Home Centre following a residents’ appeal in Limassol.
The Supreme Court characterised the decision to allow the construction of the Super Home Centre in Mesa Yeitonia as “unacceptable”.
Sources close to the case yesterday told the Mail that the centre will still be operational, despite the court ruling.
“Efforts may be undertaken to appeal the decision or go back to the Town Planning Department in an attempt to obtain another permit, but what we do know is that the centre will remain open to the public,” the source said.
Residents of the area appealed to the Supreme Court and secured a decision declaring the action of the Town Planning Department to issue the planning permit as void.
The contested decision of the Town Planning Department was issued in May 2005. The licence entailed an application for a permit to build a supermarket, and a shopping centre with home and garden ware.
When the planning permit was issued, the Limassol Local Plan of 2003 was valid, and it was acknowledged by all sides before the Supreme Court during the consideration of the appeal, based on the provision of the Local Plan, that the approval of the application was unacceptable. In other words, when approving the application for a town-planning permit, the government authority responsible knew very well that this was unacceptable, as noted in the judgement of the Court.
As the Supreme Court confirmed by studying the file of the case, the reason given during the approval of the application was vague and as such does not allow judicial review. It was further realised that there was a lack of reference over the size of the project and the potential complexity of the matters that should have been examined.
The Court ruled that the reason given for the approval of the application was totally inadequate and so the decision to issue a town-planning permit should be annulled.
The Court also examined other reasons which have provided ground for annulment of the contested decision. It was found that the plot of Super Home Centre in Mesa Yeitonia and other plots were blocked by the Regional Plan 2000 for the construction of a high school.
In accordance with the provisional procedures, if a project is not consistent with local plans, the matter is referred to the Relaxations Committee. In this case this did not happen and those who appealed to the Supreme Court, through their lawyers, argued that there was an unethical intervention by former Interior Minister Andreas Christou, who met with the Chairman of the Shacolas Group of Companies Nicos Shacolas.
The decision of the Supreme Court indicated that they cannot make assumptions about the meeting. However, it noted that there was a letter in March 2004, by which the Interior Ministry called the Town Planning Authority “in view of the data that was cited at the meeting, to examine the request without the Relaxation Committee”.
The final decision of the Supreme Court was that even if the application was examined under the Local Plan 2000, or by a subsequent Local Plan, in both cases “the licence was issued in violation of the relevant provision”. The result was the cancellation of the town planning permit.
