Green party calls on auditor-general to investigate Platres ‘illegal house’

The Green party on Sunday said it had written to Auditor General Odysseas Michealides to investigate a property accused of breaching environmental regulations.

This is because the private residence is far closer to the Kryos Potamos river in Platres than regulations allow, according to the party.

“We expect construction works to be suspended immediately. They are being carried out illegally as no building permit has been issued.”

Green party leader Giorgos Perdikis called on Michaelides to step in and investigate the matter, as he had done so for a similar incident in 2022.

He urged him to examine whether the planning permit which was issued for the property was legal. The environment and forestry department are opposed to the fact that a planning permit was issued according to reports, Perdikis said.

“Why was the illegal construction not identified by the local authorities such as the district administration, town planning department and spatial authority despite there being warnings and reports?”

A day earlier, protestors had gone to the site bearing placards saying ‘No to the rape of nature’, ‘Hands off our rivers’, ‘No more environmental crimes’, ‘The river is not a plot of land’ and ‘Nature belongs to nature’.

They slammed the architect who is the owner of the property who they said should follow the laws and having the moral responsibility not to ruin the environment “just so he can have a house to himself and enjoy nature to himself.”

Perdikis and protestors slammed the town planning authority and local authority for issuing the planning permits.

The building’s architect George Papadopoulos told the Cyprus Mail on Friday that he had obtained all necessary permits from the land registry and from the water development department, as well as a plot demarcation certificate.

He also denied altering the river’s flow. ““I’ve only built a temporary small masonry wall on the bank of the small natural pond to prevent dirt from falling into the water due to the ongoing works. This wall will be demolished once construction is finished,” he explained.

Additionally, he responded to a video circulating on social media of a dead fish floating in the pond, saying it had arrived in the pond as a result of a fish farm located upstream on the same river.