Mayor wants fines for litter bugs

ANYONE dropping litter on the streets of Nicosia could soon face a new penalty to discourage polluters and protect the environment, the Mayor of Nicosia said yesterday.
Michalakis Zampelas said he was hopeful that fines of £20 would come into effect by the end of March this year.

Zampelas said he was pleased with the positive response the proposal had received from members of the public and the media, and hoped the majority of residents in Nicosia would eventually view the fine as a positive step to protecting the environment.
“I have received many letters and phone calls about this issue and each person has congratulated me, telling me that this is a good move. Whenever a fine is imposed, generally the public are unhappy, but as soon as they realise that this is for a good cause they will change their perceptions.”

The proposal must still be approved by the Nicosia municipal council before the fine can be imposed, but Zampelas is hopeful it will come into force by the end of March.
The mayor said, in comparison with other EU cities, Nicosia was cleaner, but “not clean enough for me”.

“People are not sensible enough, especially in the old city. When a pile of litter is cleaned up in one area of a street, when you revisit the spot a day later, the litter reappears again.” He said.

Zampelas hopes the move will encourage other municipalities to follow suit.

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.