The Municipality of Eastern Paphos will enforce the laws and regulations governing advertising signs located within its municipal boundaries.

With regard to an announcement by the Municipality of Paphos concerning an alleged reversal over the removal of illegal advertising signs along the route from Paphos Airport to Tsada, ahead of the MED9 Summit, the Municipality of Eastern Paphos wishes to clarify the following:

1) On the initiative of the Paphos District Self-Government Organisation (SGO), two meetings were held in September regarding the beautification of this particular route. At the first meeting, among other matters, it was decided – owing to time constraints – that only small signs would be removed. At the second meeting, the Mayor of Paphos raised the question of also removing the large illegal advertising signs along the route. He even offered that the Municipality of Paphos would undertake the process of recording them. It was subsequently agreed that the owners of the signs would be notified and that, in the event of non-compliance on their part, crews of the Municipality of Paphos would undertake their removal on behalf of the SGO.

2) However, since our Municipality established that the SGO is not, under the law, the authority competent to license these particular advertising signs, the matter was examined by the Municipal Council of Eastern Paphos at its session of 26/9/2024. The Council unanimously decided to follow a specific procedure, within the framework of the law, to bring order to the chaos observed with advertising signs. It is made clear that the Municipal Council of Eastern Paphos will enforce all relevant laws and regulations and take all appropriate measures, without dragging our Municipality into legal entanglements.

3) The Municipality of Eastern Paphos is a newly established municipality that has inherited many problems, and its Municipal Council is working hard to resolve them. Among these is illegal advertising. Despite the understaffing of its departments, the Municipality has already proceeded with the removal of smaller signs along the old Airport road, as well as with the cleaning of the route. It has the political will to proceed with the larger signs too, through the procedures provided for by the relevant legislation and the Municipality’s regulations.

4) The Mayor of Paphos is called upon to show respect for the decisions of other local authorities in our district.