Dangerous ditch endangers students

STUDENTS at Aglantzia primary school (D) were welcomed back after the summer holidays yesterday to find a 40m ditch, running across the length of the front of their school.

The ditch, which is around 40ms long and 4ms deep, is just part of the many ongoing road works currently taking place in Aglantzia, and other areas of Nicosia.

Concerned parent Michalis Iakovidis, told the Cyprus Mail that the road works outside the school had begun months ago, but he had expected them to be completed long before the students returned.

“Road works should not be carried out now that the school year has begun,” said Iakovidis. “They are clear danger to the children, and should have been finished during the summer holidays.”

Iakovidis also commented on the barriers placed around the ditch as a safety precaution. “The fences around the road-works offer no protection at all,” “it is irresponsible of the authorities to have let this happen and something should be done about it.”

As well as the works being a hazard to the school children Iakovidis said that they had created a huge problem for parents trying to park their cars when dropping off or collecting their children from school.

President of the Primary School Parents Association, Nikos Bitsiathis commented that although he was not aware of the situation it was huge concern, citing that better planning of road works must be obligatory in the future, to prevent this from happening.

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.