The Green Party on Friday announced it will participate in a protest march for Akamas over the weekend, saying the government is “politically irresponsible” in its rushed effort to complete the area’s revised development plan.
Lately there has been an unprecedented, very worrying and exaggerated haste for the haphazard completion of the preparation of the Akamas development plan, the Greens said. This casts doubt on the rationality of the provisions being promoted, the party added, but also “trivialises the procedures provided for by the relevant legislation”.
Anastasiades’ government is “politically irresponsible and environmentally unsustainable and destructive” the greens announcement said, calling on members and friends of the party to attend the scheduled protest march on Saturday.
The demonstration is scheduled for 10.30am outside the interior ministry from where protestors will march to the presidential palace.
The organisers, Cyprus natural coastline and Save Akamas / Save Cyprus groups demand the rejection of the revised plan and for the radical amendment of its provisions.
They said the revised plan promotes “uncontrolled development” through provisions that have previously been rejected by the environment department.
“We believe the Akamas revised plan is totally inconsistent with the objectives of preserving our common natural and cultural heritage, as well as the sustainable development of the communities of the Akamas Peninsula,” they wrote on social media.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people from the arts, culture and academia have joined a petition demanding the rejection and full review of the Akamas plan saying as a Cypriot society “we failed to protect our environment”. The 450 signatories include composer Alkinoos Ioannides, singers Anna Vissi and Michalis Hadjiyiannis as well as actors such as Popi Avraam and Varnavas Kyriazis.
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