If a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing properly

HAVING lived in Kissonerga for just over 2 years and experienced the serious disruption caused by the road works it occurred to me that when the contactors submitted their tender they listed optional extras such as health and safety, signage, barriers, cleaning up infilling and other such essentials. These clearly were not taken up.
I have had two lots of costly repairs to my vehicle and a third lot are now to be met. Why do they leave huge potholes 6/8″ deep and manhole covers 3/4″ above ground? The damage caused to vehicles especially after dark is quite worrying and extremely dangerous. Rocks, rubble and unmixed cement are a constant hazard. Surely they realise the latter causes serious damage to bodywork and chassis alike. Is it that they just don’t care? Infilling holes with the unmixed cement is next to useless. It either is blown or washed away. Using household brooms to sweep roads and pavements, when they bother to, is a joke.
Someone suggested that these problems are a result of penny pinching. I cannot argue with that view as I still cannot believe they left a massive hole the full width of the road and 10-foot-plus deep with a safety barrier consisting of red and white plastic tape stretched between two poles. Further there was no shuttering or supports to protect workers in the event of a cave in. The EU are initials for European Union not “exonerates us” as the contractors seem to believe.
Where are the barriers, lights, signs and a host of other essentials so necessary and mandatory in such works as those being undertaken? Having read the recent report in the Cyprus Mail I decided action was necessary as regards the cost of repairs.
It makes us all worry that we will have problems if we go out and it must have caused immense damage to tourism. If a job is worth doing, do it properly or, move over and let someone who can. someone who has the knowledge, expertise and the proper tools for the job.
J Freeman
Kissonerga

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.