GREEN Party leader George Perdikis yesterday warned that environmentalists would start tearing down illegal billboards if their owners failed to comply with a law to take down or push back their hoardings.
Meanwhile, despite past assurances of action, the government said yesterday it was holding off pending an assessment from the Attorney-general’s office concerning the legality of moving in to tear down the billboards after fears the government could be sued for trespass.
Most billboard owners around the island started removing their hoardings on Sunday following a month’s extension by the government to conform to the new legislation. The billboards were initially supposed to come down by October 1 – the deadline set for their removal by a law passed by Parliament in May – but very few advertisers complied and owners were given a final one-month extension.
“We feel satisfied that businessmen have started responding to the deadline and are taking down the billboards,” Perdikis told the Cyprus Mail. “They do not deserve our gratitude, however, since they had no choice but to comply with the new law. If they hadn’t started doing it the government, municipalities or we would have done so.
The Green Party leader, who has been an active campaigner against roadside billboards, warned they were monitoring the situation in all districts and would step in to tear down any billboards that were left standing.
He said: “We are keeping an eye on things to see how they unfold. If within a day or two owners appear insistent on keeping their billboards standing, we, the Green Party, will remove them ourselves. This will then open up the way for the government to do the same.”
Perdikis added the Green Party’s legal team was currently investigating whether or not such an action was in fact within their legal right.
Despite signs that most owners were finally complying with the law, there were a few legal issues that needed to be ironed out before the Communication Ministry moved against offenders, Government Spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides said yesterday.
He said the government was waiting for the assessment from the Attorney-general’s office.
“(They are assessing) whether it is legal for the state to enter private property without a court order…
“(They) are also assessing the relationship between the billboard licences that local authorities have granted, based on the existing legislation at the time, and the measures the Communication Ministry is about to take.”
The assessment should be ready within the next day or two, he said.
Communications Minister Kikis Kazamias added: “However strongly the public feels about this issue, I cannot ignore the assessment of our legal council.” He said the Communications Ministry had requested the report following letters from affected parties threatening to sue if their property was trespassed.
“In the past month, letters from legal advisers have reached the Communication Minister’s office warning us that if we trespassed onto their property, we would be sued for illegal trespass, while others informed us they had secured court orders forbidding us from entering their property,” said Kazamias.
Attorney-general Solon Nikitas had been informed of these letters, and it was at his instigation that the public works department had held off removing billboards until the completion of the assessment, the minister added.
The new legislation restricts the size of billboards in and outside cities and calls for the removal of all billboards closer than 40 metres from the highway and three metres from city streets. The provisions also provide that billboards must be at least three kilometres apart on the highway.
