Filenews 6 May 2022 - by Dora Christodoulou
With the works having in the last few days "come out" from the site of the project itself and being carried out in the surrounding roads and public spaces, the time for the official unveiling of the "Park of Colours" of Paphos, counts down now. The largest urban park that will exist in Cyprus has almost been completed and it is now a matter of a few weeks to be given for use to the public of the city and province. Already for days people in the central area of the avenues of Ellados and Evagoras Pallikaridis see the works that are in full swing to have been extended to the public spaces around the park in order to complete the accesses to and from the project.
The largest urban park in Cyprus covers a huge part of the central fabric of the city between Ellados Avenue, the streets of the shopping centre to the Mouttalos district and which includes the area of "Pembes", which was well known to the people of Paphos, which was one of the most famous green spaces of the city and which in recent decades had been degraded into a hotbed of pollution and antisocial activities.
It covers an area of 32,000 square metres, making it the largest urban park in Cyprus and the richest on the island both in terms of greenery and infrastructure. Hundreds of new trees have been planted in the Park, while it includes square assembly areas, a playground, a cafeteria, a tennis court, a basketball court, a small football field, changing rooms, a skateboard course, a climbing wall of 3-6 meters, a management and information office, an exhibition outdoor space, an aromatic-botanical garden, toilets, 83 parking spaces for the public and people with disabilities, service areas, a central route, and entrance gates.
The proposal to name the park belongs to the Municipal Secretary of Pafos, Themis Filippidis. The "Park of Colours" was selected among others seven proposals by the plenary of the Pafos City Council. Based on the reasoning of the decision, the name of the park in the plot next to Charilaou Trikoupi, Athinas and Amathous streets aims to promote the value and importance of colours in everyday life. In order for this design to begin to be implemented, after the award of the architectural competition, it was necessary for the Municipality of Pafos to begin a huge cleaning project, since the area was nothing more than in recent decades but a large source of pollution, insensitivity and nuisance in the heart of Paphos.
Pafos city councillor Panagiotis Vorkas told "F" that during the cleaning works, tons of rubbish were found and removed, as well as arbitrary huts and miscellaneous materials.
"And this, since the area had been left to abandonment and desolation for at least the last 50 years," he said, "which caused serious risks to public health, but also a possible source of fire in the heart of the city."
The cleaning and removal of these materials, Mr. Vorkas pointed out, took place in the presence of officials of the Department of Forests, in order to avoid possible reactions of circles, who often invoke the protection of greenery to cover up interventions and arbitrariness of decades in public open spaces of the city.
