By Bejay Browne
A PROTEST organised by an association formed to encourage visitors to the old town will be held outside Paphos town hall on Monday to coincide with a scheduled visit by President Nicos Anastasiades.
Old-town shopkeepers will shut their doors during the visit as part of the protest.
Kyriacos Kyriacou, head of The ‘Friends of Paphos Old Town’, told the Cyprus Mail that members aim to revive the once thriving area and also increase the numbers of visitors, both locals and holidaymakers.
He said: “We have a number of aims but the main ones are to connect direct bus routes between the coastal tourist area and the old town with one ticket. One way, one ticket, not passengers having to pay twice, such as a ticket from Coral Bay to the bus station in Kato Paphos and then having to pay again and get another bus to the old town.”
Kyriacou said that visiting the old town was currently a hassle for many as it was not easy to reach. He said that in particular, from 2010 accessibility to the area had suffered, since the central bus station moved from the old town to Kato Paphos.
“There ae very stupid excuses from the government. They say that there are around 445,000 people a month travelling in the Kato Paphos area and so it would be a mistake to move the station. But they forced people to the area to make it a hot spot, it wasn’t like that before.”
The association president said that the government was trying to claw back financial losses, following a bad agreement made by the previous government with the public transport services.
“We want to reconnect the area and bring it to life. We cannot continue to be there as it is now,” he stressed.
Kyriacou said that until now, complaints have fallen on deaf ears, as the government wants to reduce its losses for empty buses which are running.
“The government subsidises these companies by around fifty per cent. They give the companies around €3 for every kilometre travelled, whether they have passengers or not.”
Supporters of the old town have long been campaigning to move the central bus station back to the area.
Kyriacou said that Anastasiades, was scheduled to arrive in the town on Monday morning to hand over some funds for projects in Paphos, and one of them is the renovation of the old town.
“We welcome this move, although we want to make sure that all of the money for the project is granted and that the entire project will be completed, not just parts of it, and in a timely and correct way.”
Kyriacou said the association is encouraging shop keepers in the old town to shut up shop for an hour between 9am to 10am to gather in front of the town hall to highlight their problems.
