Bakoyannis: No increase in municipal fees – The lights in the neighborhoods will not go out

There will be no increase of municipal fees in Athens, they will not be extinguished lights in the neighborhoodsassured the mayor of Athens Kostas Bakoyannisemphasizing that lighting is “not a luxury, but a necessity”, which is also linked to the issue of safety.

Speaking about the municipality’s energy saving plan on ANT1, Mr. Bakoyiannis emphasized that in the coming days a large project to upgrade street lighting will begin to be implemented, which will bring about large-scale savings, which the citizens of Athens and businesses will hopefully realize in their accounts.

Key points of the interview of the Mayor of Athens

“A very difficult winter is coming, and the question is what we do about it. I hear some saying that councils may as well raise council rates because objectively we are under too much pressure. The answer, obviously, is that this is not possible. There is no way for the Municipality of Athens to increase its municipal fees, at a time when the citizens of Athens are already burdened. Therefore, we cannot come and make their lives even more difficult. […]

I hear some others say that the world is not lost if you turn off the lights. We can’t turn off the lights in the neighborhoods. Lights are not a luxury, they are a necessity. Lighting is associated with safety. Therefore, the challenge for us is with proper financial management to continue, with less, to provide our services, so that we do not experience again what we experienced a few years ago – when the economic crisis worked as an alibi and we said “because we are going through this where we pass, we don’t have bins”.

The Athens street lighting modernization program

“In the coming weeks, the biggest project of the Municipality of Athens after the Double Redevelopment begins. We are upgrading a total of 42,000 electric lights with LEDs. What does this allow us? First, significant savings which – as you understand – we will soon see when the project is completed. Citizens will see them on their bills, because our fees are remunerative.

Second, it offers us more light, because the quality of the light is different.

Thirdly, it finally allows us to achieve automation, i.e. not to wait for DEDDIE and PPC to turn on and off the lights in Athens, as is done today, but to be the ones who will make the decisions if we want to have more in a square light or on a road to have less, i.e. to be able to “dimar”. And of course we won’t wait for you to tell us “a light went out, a light burned”, but we will automatically see it and be able to respond”.

The “Thermostat” program for lights and air conditioners in municipal buildings

“We are already implementing this, the “Thermostat” program was not needed. It is common sense, after all, what we all do in our homes. This is what we should do in our jobs as well.”

For the metro in Exarchia

“The metro is a great project for Athens – There are other fields to contend with”

“Line 4 of the Metro is a project that has been delayed for 10-15 years. It will move 350,000 people every day, and remove 55,000 vehicles from the city. It goes without saying that this project is of tremendous importance to the city. There are some people in Exarchion square in particular, who are not even Exarchionists who are reacting… The reality is that the vast majority of the reactions have nothing to do with the residents, it has to do with others or others – it is their right, we live in a democracy – they have found the opportunity to give a, in quotation marks, “a great ideological battle”. But we must understand that the Metro accommodates us all and unites us all. We have, thank God, other fields of politics to oppose, we don’t need to do it for the Metro. Just like we don’t need to do it for Lofos Strefi.”

“We strive to bring the quality of life to the neighborhoods of Athens”

For the projects in the neighborhoods of Athens

“Athens has 129 neighborhoods and we work from the bottom up.” Today, we are building 12 new playgrounds. We have already started a major rehabilitation program in the city’s playgrounds, which are sports and entertainment areas, especially for children. The first one was in People’s Square, it was completed a few days ago, we are continuing with the rest. At the same time, we continue with the asphalt paving throughout the city. Already, we have asphalted more than 700 roads and we are steadily going. We are working on the sidewalks, right now we have four fronts across the city. I could go on with too many projects because, as you know, Athens has fallen too far behind and we are now struggling. We are running to bring the city and the city’s quality of life back to where it deserves, where we need it.”

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