NICOSIA Mayor Michalakis Zampelas spent last week announcing a number of measures to revitalise and beautify the capital city.
At the beginning of the week, Zampelas announced the introduction of on-the-spot fines targeting illegalities and eyesores in the city.
Nicosia residents and local businesses will have until October 1 to clean up their act, after which violators will be subject to on-the-spot fines of up to £50.
The local authority pledged to use the fines to clean up the streets, eradicate illegal parking and push back overflowing kiosks and supermarkets.
Near the end of the week, Zampelas also announced a number of projects to improve the appearance and functionality of the capital, including building new roads, pavements, drainage pipes, an athletic centre and two futsal fields. The response was mixed, with some Nicosia residents demanding more action and fewer words.
In last Thursday’s Cyprus Mail, Zampelas said he was determined to see the measures through, even if that meant fining kiosk owners on a daily basis until they removed their obstructive paraphernalia and cleared the streets for the pedestrians.
“Any illegality will be fined on a daily basis until things are improved. We have the political will to move forward on this. Irrespective of the specific case and owner we will push against these illegalities,” he said.
He also referred to another integral part of the beautifying campaign; encouraging citizens to inform the municipality when it was in violation of its own code. The mayor called on citizens to let the municipality know when something wasn’t right.
“We want to persuade citizens to tell us of any wrongs in the city so we can put things right,” said Zampelas. “We expect citizens to come forward and tell us what is wrong so we can put the infrastructure in place to deal with that,” he added.
So, now the pressure lies firmly on the local authority to tackle broken pavements, rubble, dirty streets, dangerous roads, poor transport and lack of access for the disabled, so the city can finally start to look like the capital of a comparatively rich country of the European Union.
The Sunday Mail decided to take its new obligation seriously and set about the streets of Nicosia in search of problematic areas.
It didn’t take long. A short walk from the paper’s offices in downtown Nicosia revealed a main thoroughfare in dire straits and in need of saving. So, here’s an open letter to the mayor, informing him of the chaos we found:
Dear Mr Zampelas,
Kinyra Street is a one-way street linking traffic from Ayios Dometios and the Nicosia General Hospital to the roundabout near CyTA’s offices in the centre of town. The roundabout leads on to Solomon Square, the old town or the Ledra Palace checkpoint, and is close to the law courts.
The Health and Labour District Offices are situated on the street, which also acts as an official drop off spot for tourist coaches. Unofficially, the street is lined from top to bottom with illegally parked cars covering pavements, and often interjecting on to the road.
The main problem with Kinyra Street is that it looks appallingly rundown when it has the potential to become a beautiful stretch of road adorned with traditional houses, solid pavements and tall trees.
All cars parked on the street pavements were there illegally but not one of them displayed a green municipal paper signifying the inconvenient but morally acceptable parking fine.
Pedestrians, disabled people, joggers or pram-pushers have no way of passing down that street without risking life and limb to step out onto the road. A pole-jumper just might get away with it but they’re hard to find.
Even if cars didn’t swamp the pavements, pedestrians would still have problems because there is no real pavement to speak of. Stone, pebbles mixed with dirt, rubble and the occasional sprinkle of cement stand in for a pavement, but that’s using the word loosely.
There are dips and grooves, crosses and bends, dirt and a large pile of abandoned sand from an old construction site.
On one side, the pavement lines the perimeter of the municipal gardens. As a result, the gutters are blocked with leaves and dirt, threatening to flood the road during rainfall. The streetlights had electricity boxes gaping open at the bottom of the poles with live wires hanging out, in easy reach of children.
Opposite, the stone wall of a field turned into a makeshift parking lot has fallen down, and has mingled with the dusty pavement to create a mesh of dirt, stone and rubble, making it difficult to separate the car park from the pavement.
Mr Zampelas, this is a street that has parallel dirt roads and sand dunes for pavements, blocked gutters, dangerous street lights and row upon row of potential parking fines. We hope we can continue to work together to make this city a better place and give it the love it deserves.
Yours respectfully,
The Sunday Mail
