As reported in the Cyprus Mail...
PISSOURI council is at breaking point and unable to lawfully carry out decision making, local businesses and officials say.
And the situation has come to such a head that an official from the Limassol District Office will today visit the village to try to get to the bottom of things.
Secretary of the community board Petros Foutas said some of the councilors don’t turn up to meetings, and won’t discuss ongoing projects so there is a stagnation and inactivity. “Nothing is working,” he said.
“The district administration has the power as they are ‘above us’,” Foutas said. “The law says that if a council cannot carry out its tasks then the minister of the interior grants the power to the local administration to help to make decisions.”
“There are nine members of the local council and five are totally against the muktah. In the short time since they have been elected, they have ruined the village and so we have decided to hold a silent protest to highlight the problems and show our support for the muktah,” villager Roger Haston, 65, said.
Local businesses and residents will stage a peaceful protest today against the alleged unlawful behaviour of the five members of the local council, during the district officer’s visit at 10am.
“We want as many people as possible to join our peaceful protest. We will hopefully be able to get access to the council meeting for two members of the public; we want to know why they (the five) won’t agree to look after our village,” Haston said.
One of the victims of the impasse is the once busy traditional Cyprus night held once a week from May to August in the village square, attracting up to 1,000 visitors at a time. For the past year, the council has been unable to issue a licence for this.
And, according to locals, weeds are growing everywhere while there are some roads that are so overgrown that they are down to a single track.
“Volunteers are cleaning up the village square and the beaches. I believe the council is not even able to issue cheques to staff for payments,” Haston said.
“We need to move things on to a more prosperous and better time. These people don’t follow the rules; they shout and scream, they think because there are five of them they can do what they want. But nobody is above the law,” Foutas concluded.
