Sit-in protesters halt road works

A BUSY Nicosia street was blocked yesterday morning by people protesting against the construction of a traffic island.

Members of the Acropolis Avenue residents’ committee staged a sit-in at around 7.35am, physically blocking the path of construction equipment being brought in to lay out the island.

Officials then ordered the construction team out of the area, and put the building of the island on hold indefinitely.

Speaking after the protest by residents and shop owners, Nicos Solomides, head of the residents’ association, said that if the island is eventually built, association members will hand in their election booklets and refuse to vote.

The committee claims that if the island is built, it will restrict parking and adversely affect businesses in the area. They have already held a protest outside the House of Representatives, claiming that four shops have already been forced out of business by the protracted road works which began last July.

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.