The continued delay in making decisions on the completion of the new Paphos Airport-Tourist Area road does not seem to be unrelated to behind-the-scenes reactions of local bodies with financial motives. Exclusive information from "F" states that agents of community authorities and private companies in the area are putting up behind-the-scenes obstacles and putting pressure on decision-making centers in order not to complete the new road.
These factors believe that with the completion of the new road, there will be a significant reduction in traffic through communities and businesses on the existing road, which will understandably have an impact on economic activity in these areas. According to our information, this aspect of the pending issue was raised for the first time during the recent pre-election period for the parliamentary elections in May, when community officials who believe that their communities will be degraded by the creation of the new road to the airport, exerted pressure on MPs and parliamentary candidates not to keep Paphos' universal request for the completion of the new road in the news.
These localistic practices of community and economic actors in the wider area of Paphos airport had come to the attention of the official representatives of economic, social and business bodies of the Paphos district, since the recipients of these pressures felt that they were in the middle of a behind-the-scenes battle with opposing interests that left them exposed in the eyes of public opinion.
This new component, which is revealed today by "F" and which is now entering the frame, comes to be added to the ongoing long-term dispute between official bodies of Paphos with the Department of Environment and ecological organizations that oppose the completion of the second section of the new road citing environmental issues.
The representatives of the Department of Environment have not been able to convince the Paphos authorities over the years of the correctness and validity of its long-standing position on the non-promotion of the second phase of the new road to Paphos airport, with the result that the provincial authorities have announced that only with the President of the Republic they believe that it is now appropriate to hold consultations on this issue.
