A committee representing shopkeepers and residents in old Nicosia demanded on Wednesday that Nicosia mayor Charalambos Prountzos resign, hours after he told a Disy delegation that the municipality has drawn up proposals to revitalise Makarios Avenue.

Prountzos briefed the Disy delegation on Tuesday evening on the council’s two-year record, its finances and its major projects.

He put the municipality’s minimum real needs at €35 million against a state grant of €22.5 million.

He described plans for the industrial Sopaz area as potentially the largest development project in Cyprus, and pressed the case for a park at the old state fair exhibition site to give both Engomi and west Nicosia its “own green lung”.

In regard to Makarios avenue, the municipality said its proposals would go before the council in the coming weeks, with Prountzos expecting support from government and the House, since any change to the avenue requires parliamentary approval.

The representative committee of shopkeepers and residents in the historic old town have rejected that approach outright, accusing the mayor of mishandling the public consultation on the pedestrian areas redevelopment.

It claimed he had signed a contract worth tens of thousands of euros with PWC, paid from municipal funds, to “buy the result” against small businesses and residents.

It further lambasted the “promotion of student dormitories under construction in the centre as a solution to the area’s problems”.

“We demand the immediate resignation of mayor Prountzos,” the committee said.

It declared there was “no room for cooperation” and rejected every public and private position he had taken.

The row over Makarios stems from its €20 million redevelopment, funded largely by EU cohesion money and designed to restrict private traffic while encouraging cycling and public transport.

A joint platform representing the commercial core says two out of three shops on the avenue stand empty, calls the street a “dead zone” and wants two-way traffic restored on its southern section.

Prountzos disputes those figures, for municipal data he has cited shows 70 of 106 ground floor premises occupied, with only 16 of the 36 vacant units currently on the market.

He says a council decision to allow private vehicles between 7am and 9pm still needs approval from the police chief, and that any change must avoid triggering repayment of EU funding.

The European Commission addressed that funding question directly in comments reported by Politis.

It said the nearly €21 million allocated to the Makarios and Stasikratous redevelopment, part of a wider €25 million scheme, was tied to specific sustainable mobility objectives.

Any subsequent change inconsistent with those conditions, it said, could constitute an irregularity.

Under EU rules governing infrastructure investment, a member state can be required to repay funding if a substantial change to a project’s nature or objectives occurs within five years of final payment.

The commission did not say reopening Makarios to general traffic was barred or would automatically trigger repayment.

It said any such move would require individual assessment against the terms under which the money was approved.

Disruption likewise continues elsewhere in the old town, where roadworks around Oxi roundabout and Trikoupi street have run well past their original schedule.

The municipality insists these works are needed to upgrade underground infrastructure and improve accessibility.

The House transport committee resumes its discussion of the Makarios traffic arrangements on Thursday.