Smaller municipalities are “being wronged” in the allocation of state subsidies, Polis Chrysochous said on Tuesday.
Mayor Yotis Papachristofis walked out of a meeting on Monday evening with the other 13 municipalities that come under its umbrella to discuss the funding, the Cyprus News Agency reported. Some did not agree with the stance of the Polis mayor so he left.
The walkout was in protest over the decision handed down by the union of municipalities dictating how the funds should be allocated to the municipality and the 13 or so villages that come under its umbrella.
Polis municipality expressed its “strong opposition and disagreement” with the decision of the board of the union of municipalities.
“The result is that the municipalities with a small population, such as the municipality of Polis Chrysochous, are being wronged,” it said.
The money appeared to have been allocated on the basis of criteria that only took into account population size, it added.
“It is obvious, that subjective criteria were taken into account, which are clearly unfair to the small municipalities and do not correspond to the vision of the reform of the local government,” the municipality continued.
It did not take into account that a small municipality like Polis had merged with 13 other village councils making it, with 248 square kilometres, the largest municipality in Cyprus by area – if not by population.
“This means we have a wider range of responsibilities with enormous responsibilities,” it added.
Based on this data, it said, the Polis municipality was entitled to state funding equal to 1.68 per cent of total government subsidies of €117 million.
At Monday evening’s meeting, Papachristofi put forward a proposal to the other 13 community leaders not to accept the allocation of the funding as it stood and to push for further negotiations but he failed to secure a consensus.
