Our View: A lax approach to the law only breeds contempt

THE WAY some companies are allowed to show blatant disregard for the law is quite astonishing. Then we wonder why so many of us consider it perfectly acceptable to ignore the law and view people who comply with it as fools. Why should anyone show respect for the law when they see so many people breaking it with impunity on a regular basis?
The newly-opened Madisons shopping centre, in the area of the Nicosia General Hospital provided a perfect illustration of contempt for the law by the company that is running the operation. The company proceeded to sign a 60-year rental agreement with the owner of the building (formerly known as IMC), made changes to it without securing the necessary planning permission and changed its use (from wholesale trading centre to retail shopping centre) without approval from the authorities.
Madisons was opened in mid-December in order to cash in on the Christmas trade without any of the necessary permits from the authorities, causing traffic chaos in an area that already suffered from heavy congestion, because of the existence of the general hospital, IKEA and the Mall of Cyprus. The fact the company running Madisons was prepared to invest tens of millions of euro in transforming the building, buying merchandise and opening without having secured any permits for its operations showed the disregard it had for the law. Its owners quite clearly believed that there would be no cost to breaking the law and that the permits would eventually be issued.
Strovolos municipality took legal action against the company for unauthorised change of use of the building and the case will be heard next week while the Town Planning Department secured a court order for its closure, but reportedly was unable to serve the order. Meanwhile, the Public Works Department has asked that the company running Madisons paid up €980,000 as a condition for change of use, as the shopping centre’s operation would require new road works in the area to ease congestion.
Would the company ever pay this amount, considering it has already started its operations without securing planning permission?
The problem is that big companies have always behaved in this way. Their owners ignore the law, because they know that the cost for doing so would be negligible and that the authorities would eventually issue them with the required permits. If the authorities always took a tough line and ensured enforcement of the law, the company’s owners would not have risked opening the centre. But they knew that the authorities would go through the legal motions, without daring to take any punitive action against them.
It is this lax approach to law enforcement by the authorities that breeds contempt for the law. The unjustifiable bureaucratic delays in issuing permits also contribute to the problem, but they are no justification for behaving as if the law does not exist.

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.