Ineia landowners plan to block roads next Sunday to protest Akamas plan

Landowners from the Akamas community of Ineia said on Sunday they would block the roads in and out of the Lara area next Sunday as part of measures they’ve planned to oppose the government’s local plan for the environmentally sensitive region.

The decision was taken during a meeting on Sunday, a day before the department of the environment is expected to deliver its final opinion on the contentious Akamas local plan.

At a community gathering held at noon in the local square at Ineia, it was decided that next Sunday’s event would be “massive and dynamic”, according to reports, in order “to send the message that residents and landowners will not stand for being deprived of the right to enjoy their own properties.

Ineia has also separated itself from the other communities caught up in the environmental plan because the residents say that the other villages will receive some benefit while Ineia will not “so their protests have stopped”, community leader Yiangos Tsivikos said.

“Ineia has not received the slightest benefit,” he said, according to reports from gathering.

“For this reason we officially request that the publication of the local plan does not goes ahead and that our community joins the new municipality of Peyia and its own local plan,” he added.

Although no one can guarantee this would mean satisfying all of their requests, under the Akamas plan “we don’t have the slightest possibility that even one of our requests will be satisfied”.

The mayor of Peyia Marinos Lambrou, who attended the gathering, expressed the readiness of the municipal authority to assist Ineia in its requests.

“We must all think about Akamas and the natural environment,” he said. “But at the same time we must also think about the residents of Ineia who have been suffering for 33 years without any development of the area and their properties. A way should be found for them to enjoy their properties like all Cypriots”.