By Alex Mita
LIMASSOL residents’ fears over the safety of listed buildings in the old city were increased after a wall of a house being restored collapsed on Wednesday, crushing a foreign worker from the waist down.
According to reports, the accident follows the collapse of a balcony last week, an incident that could have resulted in tragedy had there been people in the area at the time.
Sotiris Hailis, the man who rushed to the rescue of the foreign worker after the wall came down, blamed local authorities for allowing the houses to reach a state of collapse.
“This is the third time in our neighborhood that a building has collapsed and it’s amazing how no one was killed,” he said.
Hailis said the municipality had given permission to restore the house, not caring that it was beyond repair.
“What kind of safety measures did the municipality take before starting work on the building?” he said.
But Limassol Mayor Demitris Kontides blamed the fact that owners neglected to maintain listed buildings in the old city.
“The municipality cannot force the owner of a listed house to repair it,” he said.
“The government should step in and find other ways and provide more incentives for people to repair their houses, since what they have done until now has not been successful.”
Kontides said many houses in Limassol were on the verge of collapse and stressed that this would destroy the city’s history.
“The whole city will soon be wearing a sling,” he said.
Green party activist and architect Roxanne Koudounari told the Cyprus Mail yesterday the government should offer better incentives to the owners of listed buildings, and even suggested the local authority should intervene and repair the house if it could not get in touch with the owner.
“Through the efforts of organisations such as POAK, the Architects’ Association, and ETEK, as well as the Department of Restoration of Town Planning, many incentives have been set up in order to motivate the private sector to restore properties and avert further deterioration, with the authorities paying as much as 40 per cent of the restoration expenses.
“The Municipality should inject more funds into restoring and preserving listed houses which are part of our heritage, instead of building new roads, ” she said.
“Some people cannot afford to have their houses refurbished and although the incentives are good the municipality should throw them a lifeline.”
