The Ministry of Interior returns to the above publication and instead of a response refers to statement issued on the matter on 21 December 2021, which, among other things, stated the following:
"The Ministry of Interior clarifies that the Inter-ministerial Committee chaired by the Minister of Interior, after presenting all the facts of this application, unanimously accepted the hierarchical appeal of the applicant, considering that the Nicosia Municipality wrongly did not grant the requested permit. This is because, it is the Nicosia Municipality itself, in its effort to increase the population density with residential units in the degraded Urban Commercial Centre of the capital by promoting sustainability, prepared in 2016 an Area Plan, which is still in force today and by which it granted an increased building factor from 100% to 200% and from 3 storeys to 8 storeys with a maximum permitted height of 31 metres to these developments.
The applicant on 15/9/2017 secured positive preliminary views in writing from the Nicosia Municipality, according to which he was given a clear position on the possibility of building 8 storeys with the possibility, in fact, of approving an additional 2 storeys as per the provisions of the Area Plan.
In addition, the Inter-ministerial Committee was informed that during the submission of the application for a 10-storey building, the Nicosia Municipality was consulted and the building was sited, at the suggestion of the Municipality, at a distance of 7 metres from the boundary to ensure visual contact with the adjacent listed building. The applicant was also asked to reduce the coverage from 60% to 53% in order to reduce the volume of the building, which was also done."
Therefore, the Inter-ministerial Committee clarifies for the umpteenth time that its decision was taken on the basis of the provisions of the Area Plan prepared and published by the Nicosia Municipality itself and the legal interest that the Municipality created for the applicant. The decision of the Inter-ministerial Committee protects the State itself from the possibility of being dragged to the Courts with the risk of having to pay exorbitant compensation, which in the end will be paid by the taxpaying citizens, as well as defending the rights of the applicant."
If the Nicosia Municipality disagrees with the Area Plan that it has prepared, then instead of evading and entangling itself in confrontations with citizens, it may well cancel it by correcting the failure it has made.
(EFYs)
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