Building blues are a chance for much-needed reflection

Now that the building boom in Cyprus is grinding to a halt, it may be a good time for the Government to take stock of the current situation and legislate as necessary to avoid progressing much further with the types of mistake that have already been made elsewhere in Europe. 

Large areas of Cypriot countryside have been blighted with poorly designed and very badly built houses that create soulless ghost towns in winter. Ancient trees have been uprooted and burned to make way for low cost housing estates cramming in as many properties as possible.

Street lighting pollutes the night time sky, so that stars disappear.  Hardly used swimming pools place pressure on increasingly scarce water resources.  Building sites are seldom made good after the houses have been completed. Builders and their contractors often leave their waste rubble strewn about or, worse still, dumped down the side of a local beauty spot where they join the broken down refrigerators of Cyprus.

Gullible house buyers are easily misled by builders as to their rights and can end up with no title deeds after paying for “their” new house.  While there are doubtless reputable builders and contractors in Cyprus, the horror stories fill the pages of the Cyprus Mail on a regular basis.  It really is a good time for something to be done before the next spate of building kicks off.

P A Bailey
Pissouri, Limassol

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.