Filenews 22 January 2021 - by Dora Christodoulou
The parties involved are waiting on the issue of the Paphos Public Garden following yesterday's decision of the District Court vindicating the Metropolis in its action against the State and the Municipality as regards the zeroing of the value of its property and awarding it almost 8 million euros in compensation.
The Metropolitan of Paphos, Georgios, told "F" this morning that so far he had no official information from the legal adviser of the Metropolis about the decision and reserved his position when he was properly informed and in all dimensions of the decision. He estimated that this would happen within the day, when he would make as he said in first comments.
A similar position is held by the Municipality of Paphos, whose plenary session is expected at the beginning of next week to study the decision and actions taken by the Municipality. In various respects, however, there was an informal optimism today that the Municipality and Metropolis could possibly reach a common position regardless of the decision, given that in the period since the appeal of the Metropolis of Paphos the two sides have come closer to the issue of the application for the construction of a temple within the Public Garden and therefore this could be "set off" with the obligations that have now been created in the municipal authority vis-à-vis the Church.
On 8.6.2010, the Holy Metropolis of Paphos registered a lawsuit against the Attorney General of the Republic, the Municipality of Paphos and the Council of Ministers, claiming damages of €26,125,000 plus interest for a reduction in the economic value of its estate, in which the Public Garden is located, due to a change in its urban zone.
Yesterday, after a hearing, the Paphos District Court decided that the Municipal Committee with the C.D.P. 180/81 dated 7.8.1981 has added the piece of the Public Garden in zone Z1, reducing its building rate from 160% to 1%, resulting in a substantial reduction in the economic value of the estate.
The Court, on the basis of Article 23 of the Constitution protecting the right to property, ordered the Municipality of Paphos to pay as compensation for the substantial reduction in the value of the estate, the value of the estate on 7.8.1981 in which it was located before its accession to zone Z1, €2,050,000, less its value after its inclusion in zone Z1, €86.292 , i.e. €1,963,708, adjusted due to inflation at the time of registration of the action to €5,482,672, plus statutory interest from 08.6.2010, plus expenses, plus statutory interest from the adoption of the decision, plus VAT.
The amount of the decision today is €7,739,000 plus expenses.
