A joint meeting on the topic of Local Government Reform and the mergers of Municipalities and Communities, as well as the Association of Ayia Napa, Sotiras and Liopetri, was held on Monday in the presence of the three councils.
The meeting, which took place at Sotiras City Hall, was attended by the plenary sessions of the municipal councils of Ayia Napa and Sotiras and the Community Council of Liopetri.
A joint announcement states that the Municipal Councils of Ayia Napa and Sotiras and the Community Council of Liopetri with unanimous decisions of their councils propose the merger between them in the context of the local government reform.
With the merger of Ayia Napa, Sotira and Liopetri, the announcement states, the largest tourist Municipality of Cyprus will be created, which will have an active population that will exceed 50,000 on average annually and will combine all the benefits and advantages of the tourism of Ayia Napa with the advantages of the hinterland of Sotira and Liopetri but also of the common coastal front that will be created, with fair tourist, economic, social and cultural development.
A coastal front which, as mentioned, will have excellent development prospects having as core the Ayia Napa Marina.
The position of the three councils, the announcement continues, is that in the context of the reform, the views of the councils should be seriously taken into account and where there is a consensus for mergers, these should be promoted.
Finally, it is pointed out that the merger of the three will create a Municipality in which throughout its territory on the one hand citizens will enjoy a better standard of living and on the other hand visitors a multitude of services, experiences, reference points and special tourism interests while businesses will prosper.
In his statements after the joint meeting, the Mayor Sotiras Georgios Takkas pointed out that with this merger there is the expectation to create the largest coastal front of Cyprus with an increase in the hinterland with the consequent advantages that it will offer.
In his turn, the Mayor of Ayia Napa, Giannis Karousos, expressed his satisfaction for the joint meeting of the three councils on the issue of mergers but also for the joint decision taken by the three councils for their reunification in the context of local government reform. . According to him, the purpose of the meeting was to prepare the further steps that will be taken, the decision on the content of the relevant letters to be sent to the President of the Republic, the Minister of Finance and the Parliamentary Parties, but also the analysis of the criteria which have led the three councils to reach joint unanimous decisions for unification, which are technocratic, economic, geographical and socio-economic, in order to create the largest tourist Municipality of Cyprus which on the one hand will have the benefits of the tourism of Agia Napas but on the other hand the benefits and advantages that the coastal front and the hinterland of Sotira and Liopetri have.
Finally, the President of the Community of Liopetri Kyriakos Trisokkas expressed the hope that there will always be unity between the three councils.
