By Bejay Browne.
Kissonerga community council is now in possession of title deeds relating to the public cemetery after paying the last instalment of a debt owed to previous landowners.
The land used for the cemetery was owned by various individuals and was expropriated by the previous local council for €640,000 but the debt was never paid, Kissonerga community leader George Stylianou said.
“The previous council didn’t make payments in time and there were other financial problems involved and the final payment was made by the current council at the end of December 2019, so we finally own the cemetery,” he said.
He added that the issue was serious and the debt made up part of an inherited, wider debt for the current council which stood at €3.9 million. Kissonerga was on the verge of bankruptcy when he was voted in as leader, he said.
“On December 20 we paid the final instalment of €147,000 and we are very happy about that. We have ended up paying €1.3 million, as we have also had to pay 9% interest, since 2016, according to a court order.”
In addition, the construction cost of the new cemetery was around €250,000, meaning the cemetery, which has been in use since 2006, cost around €1.5 million.
Stylianou explained that the previous council also took out a loan to pay for the cemetery, but instead used the funds elsewhere.
“They bought a building to be used as a museum,” he said.
The current council has reduced the debt to around €1.4 million, which they believe will be cleared in the next five years. However, Stylianou, whose term ends in 2021 said he will not stand as community leader again.
“I had a mission to save Kissonerga from bankruptcy and fix our finances, which we have done and also include projects for the community such as community offices, a beach, a square, parks and a cemetery with no debt, and we now have all of these.”
Stylianou added that Kissonerga is now financially robust thanks to the collective effort of the council members and the financial plan they developed and implemented over the last eight years. The plan curtails spending and increases revenue.
A main source of income for the community is from the beach and hotels in the area. Potima Bay in Kissonerga is also the proposed site of a long awaited marina for Paphos, which has been the subject of protracted delays. The feasibility of including cruise ship infrastructure alongside the marina is now also being examined.
