In an announcement, the Ministry of Interior is taking the position of submitting the hatching local plan for Akamas in the Parliament, something that was intensely discussed yesterday in the parliamentary Committees on Environment and Interior. The ministry considers at this stage “irresponsible” to publish the local plan, since, as mentioned, the issuance of the final opinion of the environmental authority on the Local Plan was not completed, but also due to the provisions of Regulation 15 of Urban Planning and Spatial Planning ( Urban Planning Council) Regulations of 1973 and 2003, which provide that the Urban Planning Council is obliged to handle matters within its competence with complete confidentiality.
The announcement of the ministry: >
The Akama Local Plan is prepared in accordance with the provisions of the current Legislation and after a decision of the Council of Ministers. The Urban Planning Council, to which the Minister of Interior has delegated his responsibilities on this issue, based on the existing Regulations, concluded the discussion and concluded his decisions which he forwarded together with the Strategic Environmental Impact Study to the Environmental Authority by which the final opinion is awaited.
To the persistent request of some MPs and parties to publish the Akama Local Plan before the completion of the legal procedures, we responded with a letter on April 4, 2022 to the Committee on the Interior informing that (paragraph 7 of the letter): “taking into account that The issuance of the final opinion of the environmental authority on the Local Plan was completed, as well as the provisions of Regulation 15 of the Urban Planning and Spatial Planning Regulations of 1973 and 2003, which provide that the Urban Planning Board is obliged to handle its matters in full confidentiality, the document requested by your letter in question is governed at this stage by the above Regulation 15, if it has not yet been submitted to the Minister of the Interior. Therefore, we consider that at this stage it is not appropriate to publish the Akamas Local Plan, as such an action may call into question the legitimacy of the elaboration process. “
Therefore, under these circumstances It is at least irresponsible to request its publication, unless the purpose and goal is to challenge its legitimacy.
AKEL's “appeal” to stop the process of drafting the Akama Plan is just another manifestation of the way in which it is governed. We postpone and see.
The government does not adopt similar practices. It works on the basis of design and planning. The Town Planning Council heard all the views. The competent Ministers made a series of visits, met with organized groups, talked to those affected and visited the area several times. This is how the suggestions that were presented to the competent Environmental Authority were formulated and from which we will wait for the final opinion.
