The smallest in area, but the most densely populated municipality of Greater Limassol, the Municipality of Mesa Geitonia, is in a transitional stage, in view of the upcoming country-wide local government reform and its planned merger with the Limassol Municipality. Speaking to ‘’Entrepreneurial Limassol’’ Mesa Geitonia Mayor Doros Antoniou noted that reform was a necessity and will give the opportunity to municipalities to offer better services to their citizens. Mr. Antoniou pointed out, moreover, that Mesa Geitonia is geographically an integral part of the Municipality of Limassol, and the socio-economic structure of the population is effectively identical.
According to the local government reform bill, each municipality that will be merged will be transformed into a local department headed by a deputy mayor, and will have its own of municipal councilors, a system that will act as a safety valve to ensure development and quality of life of the inhabitants of the specific area, in the present case those of Mesa Geitonia. As for development projects promoted by the Municipality, Doros Antoniou made special reference to the upgrade of two important road arteries, which serve thousands of drivers, Makarios and Grigoris Afxentiou avenues, an upgrade that had been pending for several years because of bureaucratic procedures. In the meantime, the recent replacement of street lighting with LED lamps facilitated significant savings, of 65%, in the annual cost of electricity, which is the region of €90.000 per year. The cost of the investment was €400.000.
Speaking in his second capacity, as President of the Limassol Integrated Waste Management Facility, Doros Antoniou, admitted there were serious problems in the operation of green points. Whereas, he explained, initial planning provided for 10 green points for Limassol district, only were actually built. In addition, the opening hours of those four are limited and they are not, therefore, as helpful to the public as they should be.…. "We are aware of the problems and we are trying with coordinated actions, to increase the number of green points to eight - with the creation of four more over the next couple of years - as well as extend their opening hours."
