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A 24-hour timeout was given on Wednesday by the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Internal Affairs, Aristos Damianou, to the Planning Department to respond whether to table the nascent Akama Local Plan in Parliament, stressing that no one is above parliamentary scrutiny.
In a lengthy joint session of the Environment and Interior Committees, representatives of relevant government agencies, independent organizations, environmental organizations and community representatives discussed the proposed Akama Local Plan.
In statements after the session, the Chairmen of the two Committees stressed the need to protect Akama against any vested interests.
Mr. Theopeptou, Chairman of the Environment Committee, said the way the government is treating Akamas was evident in 2017 when they presented a regulation amendment "so as to give Akamas beaches to communities and businessmen to operate them."
"We have come today to discuss a decision by government to give development rights, within Akama to have niche developments, individual houses, roads that will lead to the beach, extensions, and it is understood that this is a deliberate planning to destroy the area, with development," he added.
He expressed concern over the plans government has embarked on and its decision to give development rights.
"The fact that these steps are always taken just before elections we are used to it, but I want everyone to know that there are more people who love Akama and want it protected," he said, for those who will take part in the presidential election processes to always bear this in mind.
[/P][BR]Damianou, in his own remarks, stressed that they would not allow any interests, private, political or otherwise, to take precedence over the need to continue to protect the Akama area.
He said that they had looked at the environmental and urban planning aspects with regard to the nascent Akama local plan and that the discussion would continue.
"I must say that all the previous weeks we were receiving information, which was worrying in the sense of altering this ecosystem that we are all proud of and planning for a so-called soft development of the Akama area," he said."
During the meeting, Mr. Damianou asked the Director of the Planning Department, Kyriakos Koundouros, to submit the local plan to the Parliament, after the recent refusal of the Minister of Interior to do so, as he said, citing the existing legislation concerning Urban Planning.
Mr. Koundouros said they would have to consult with the Legal Service before giving any response, with Mr. Damianos noting that they have until Thursday morning to respond and if they refuse to table the plan in Parliament, it will be noted, and they will see how to proceed.
Mr. Damianou said afterwards in his remarks that they have given a 24-hour deadline for the relevant ministry to consult with its legal adviser "and judge whether any of their own regulations go above and beyond the obligation to be accountable to parliamentary scrutiny."
No one is above parliamentary scrutiny, he said, adding that they would expect compliance by tomorrow with the requirement to table the nascent local plan "which everyone is talking about but few know about, and certainly not MPs."
Damianou also referred to some positions of principle, which he said were reiterated, such as that man and the environment should not be in conflict but in harmony, while acknowledging that a number of communities are wronged, he said that the restoration of their rights should not be at the expense of the environment.
He also said that there must be respect for laws and conventions ratified by the Republic of Cyprus regarding the environment, sustainability in development and sensitivity to the legitimate demands of a number of affected communities.
One issue raised was that of individual housing.
Mr. Theopeptou, said in his statements that the positions of both environmental organisations and the Citizens' Ecology Movement have always been against individual housing.
"It is an issue which is exploited by various people in Cyprus despite the fact that the provisions of the legislation have a logical basis. We know very well that we are violating them all," he said, adding that individual housing is not done to accommodate residents who do not have a plot of land within the community. "All these developments in the middle of nowhere are individual dwellings which you have the right to get a relaxation from the Board of Variance and make a whole settlement," he said.
On the same issue, ETEC President Constantine Constantis told the meeting that the Chamber is against policies for scattered development such as individual housing, which is, he said, "a cancer" and should be banned across the country as it circumvents important sustainable development policies.
On Akamas, he said the cost should be borne by all as a society, not just the residents of the area. He spoke of tools that can address the concerns of communities and said that technocrats should be left free to provide solutions, stressing that they represent 16,000 engineers and that there can be solutions.
Representatives of environmental and other organisations expressed reservations with several provisions of the Plan.
Terra Cypria executive director, Lefkios Sergidis, said the local plan being promoted creates developments within communities while the issue of private property is not solved by exchange alone. He said the Plan should include good practices from other European countries on the issue of property.
Elias Pecris, President of the Cyprus Hunting and Wildlife Conservation Federation[/B], expressed concern about the 28 visited farms envisaged in the Plan, which he said would be from the edge of the forest to the edge of the communities and would change the character of the area.
He further said if an area is so environmentally important, why should not the Government buy the land at its true value and that they are ready and willing to be taxed for this purpose.
The Provincial Secretary of the Cyprus Pan-Agricultural Union, Haralambos Pittokopitis, called on the Planning Council as "the last one" to also meet the very justified demands of Innea, which, he said, is the only community that had tourist zones on the beaches and overnight they were reset to zero.
He also said there is a provision in the local plan for an irrigation ban and expressed hope that no such provision would be adopted.
The community leader of Innea, Yagos Chivikos, told MPs that his community was "grossly wronged" as, of all the communities in the Akama region, it was the only one affected by the Ordinance for no development west of the communities. All the community's property, he said, 36 square kilometres, was all to the west.
He further said he heard during the debate about environmental and animal protection directives but no one mentioned the protection of people and their rights.
"We the people have saved Akama for so many years for you all to be here today talking about Akama. For 33 years, the only people who have been enjoying Akama are all of you except the residents," he said.
Chivikos said they will not accept the local plan and called on the officials to see Inia as an exception and not to put it in the same basket with other communities, referring to "two measures and two weights" as far as his community is concerned.
During the debate, DISY MP, Charalambos Pazaros, said that the time has come, after decades, to provide a solution to this problem. Man, he said, can coexist with the environment as long as the right environmental consciousness is cultivated.
DIKO MP,Chrysanthos Savvidis, said that some people cannot say they are thinking about Akamas but its population has declined precipitously in the last 40 years. Young people are not staying in the communities because they have no prospects, he said, adding that the average age is 65 and above.
He also said that out of about 24,000 residents, 1,600 remained and that in 10 years, if no one stays, the Akamas issue will be resolved.
ELAM MP, Linos Papagiannis said that the state should put its hand deep in its pocket and give the residents what they are entitled to. He also said that this development should not be at the expense of the younger generation. In statements after the session, he said that ELAM's position is that Akamas must be protected "like the apple of his eye."
DISY MP, Nikos Sykas, in statements after the session, said he believes "that this government, since 2016, has dared and touched the issue of Akamas." He said it is a very difficult issue, which touches both the human side and the ethical and the ecological side and the environmental sensitivity.
"You understand that for such difficult issues, first of all, composition and the beneficial effort of a compromise is needed," he added.
He said that in the Democratic Rally they believe that man and the environment must coexist.
He said that in the Democratic Rally they believe that man and the environment must coexist. "We will take into account the particularities of the area," he said, noting that they heard today that in terms of biodiversity, flora and fauna are also affected "and we have to be careful, just as we have heard today that there are 3,500 owners who own land for development, which should be taken into account."
Bearing in mind what was presented at the meeting by the public services and more generally by the Land Registry and the Environment Agency, he said, "I think procedurally we are moving towards the end of the next phase of public consultation on the Akamas Local Plan." He urged all parties involved to look at the issue consensually so as not to do injustice to either the environment or the residents of those areas, who he said are perhaps the most disadvantaged of the entire population spectrum of this place.
Alexandra Attalidou[/B], MP of the Ecologist-Civic Co-operation Movement, referred to non-transparent sub-procedures and "unacceptable intervention for the immediate approval of a revised local plan" for which both the Environmental Authority expressed great reservations and the Thera Authority very great reservations for the protection of fauna and flora and all environmental organisations.
He also said that while the Home Secretary had previously told the Home Affairs Committee that the policy of individual housing, is destructive, however, in the case of the Local Plan this policy is approved as well as farms "which are basically the back door to hotel and other development".
As for the communities, he said that they are standing by them to have the support from the state that is appropriate in cases where land will be expropriated.
On behalf of the ecological intervention Friends of Akamas, Kyriakos Tsimillis, said that it was very timely that the two Committees held a joint meeting, "because indeed the issue of Akamas is reaching a critical turning point".
"We found officially today, it was admitted, that the government abandoned already in 2016, secretly and without documentation, the goal and commitment to declare the entire peninsula a National Park, category 2 according to IUCN, and a biosphere reserve," he said.
Beyond that, he added, "we find that the steps taken are completely inadequate." He said that on the one hand is the declaration of a national forest park, which is a degradation of protection, in a geographically shrinking area, essentially the two state forests that were protected by law. On the other hand, he added, moving forward with two separate and non-functional processes, for Pegeia and Akama communities, with respective plans. We had before us the proposal for a local plan for the Akama communities, he said. He added that this violated the Minister's own commitment and statement of his objectives, which was against scattered, but in favour of compact development of the communities.
Quite rightly, he said, the Department of Environment has lodged its strong reservations, "since the new proposal does not satisfy, does not remove the reasons for the negative interim opinion that preceded it."
Savvas Hadjiminas, President of the Akamas Land Owners Association
, who represented the communities of Drousia and Neo Chorio, said that there cannot be two classes of citizens and that a decision should be made.
He said there is a huge area of 25 square kilometres and 3,500 land owners "who are sacrificing the land and there is a demand from our environmentalist friends that there should be no development in these areas." He said the Anastasiades government, "wisely, listening to the land registry" and the €800 million-€1 billion cost of compensation, decided to go ahead with a plan that on the one hand would give some sustainable development in the area by giving the building rates back to the owners.
He added that Article 23 of the constitution says that once used and reduced the value of the property should be compensated. "Unfortunately, no government has done that," he said."
"Either a building factor will be given or compensation will be given," he added."
Source: CNA
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