DRIVERS of hybrid cars will be allowed to park free of charge for a period of one year in public parking spaces in Strovolos municipality.
Strovolos Mayor Savvas Eliophotou said the idea behind the initiative was one of the municipality’s many ways to reduce CO2 emissions by at least 20 per cent by 2020.
Eliophotou said the municipality had signed the European Covenant of Mayors for local, sustainable energy along with cities in 39 other countries. Other Cyprus municipalities that have signed the Covenant include Larnaca, Ayios Athanasios, Latsia, Lefkara and Paralimni.
Signatories of the Covenant of Mayors contribute towards the EU policy to fight against climate through the implementation of their Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP).
Eliophotou said free parking for hybrid cars (that run off a rechargeable battery as well as petrol) or electrical cars was part of his municipality’s SEAP.
The mayor said a list of all hybrid and electrical cars would be acquired by the municipality so that none of the vehicles were fined when parking in public parking spaces. He said it was the municipality’s way of rewarding environmentally conscious motorists.
However, Strovolos’ SEAP did not stop there and would include actions concerning public and private buildings, municipal infrastructure such as street lighting, and facilitating urban mobility, said Eliophotou.
The mayor said the SEAP had been approved by the municipality council last week and would be presented to the public in detail this Friday during a news conference.
He said some measures included introducing bicycles for hire at certain points throughout the Nicosia district region, encouraging homeowners to use photovoltaic technology and double glazing, to introduce photovoltaic technology to existing buildings, to introduce more cost efficient lamps in street lighting or to exchange them for photovoltaic lamps.
“There are a whole host of measures we plan on introducing so that we can achieve this reduction by 20 per cent by 2020. If we allow things to continue as they are our CO2 emissions will increase by 35 per cent by 2020 so effectively we have to cut emissions by 55 per cent by then. We will try to achieve this through our SEAP,” Eliphotou said.
