A meeting on the long-awaited Special Ecological Assessment for the Trozena development will be held at the Limassol district local government organisation (EOA) on September 30, Arsos community leader Giannis Giannakis told the Cyprus Mail.

The meeting was requested by the Arsos community council as questions remain over the future of the proposed development in and around the abandoned village, which lies within the environmentally sensitive Hapotami Special Protection Area of the Natura 2000 network.

Giannakis said officials including Department of Environment Deputy Director Elena Stylianopoulou and Environment Commissioner Ilias Myrianthous are expected to attend the meeting, which will focus on the assessment and the next steps concerning the project.

The ecological assessment has been awaited as part of the process of determining the environmental implications of the proposed development and the conditions under which it could proceed.

Trozena has been at the centre of controversy in recent months over plans for a wellness development.

In May, the Limassol EOA ordered the suspension of works requiring permits after an inspection identified works being carried out without the necessary planning permission. The EOA subsequently requested, in agreement with the environment department, that the project’s architects submit a comprehensive master plan so the development could be assessed as a whole.

In July, environmental organisation Terra Cypria alleged that works were continuing without the required environmental and planning approvals. Giannakis disputed this at the time, telling the Cyprus Mail that construction had stopped at the end of May and had not resumed.

Meanwhile, separate work is underway to preserve one of the area’s most distinctive landmarks, Trozena’s British-era metal bridge, while the process of designing a new bridge has also begun.

Giannakis said the Arsos community council had asked the Limassol district administration to carry out maintenance on the existing bridge.

“The floor has been replaced, it is in the process of being painted and the foundations will be checked,” Giannakis said.

The road crossing the bridge has been temporarily closed to allow the maintenance work to be carried out.

At the same time, Giannakis said, work has begun on designing a new crossing because the existing bridge cannot accommodate heavier vehicles.

“The process of designing a new bridge has now started, because tourist buses cannot cross due to the weight,” he said.

The location of the new bridge will be determined in accordance with the relevant regulations, while the old bridge will be retained as a historic feature.

The metal bridge dates from the British colonial period and features a metal frame and wooden deck characteristic of engineering of the period.

According to local accounts passed down by residents, the bridge was not originally built in Cyprus but was brought from Egypt, dismantled and subsequently reassembled in the Trozena gorge. The crossing historically served communities in the Diarizos valley, including Gerovasa and Trozena, an area closely associated with agriculture and viticulture.