The bulldozers of the Decentralized Administration of Crete, which started working last Saturday, are in an “orgasm” of work, with their jaws demolishing the cement of an arbitrary abandoned structure in Tobruk.

The roof of the dangerously abandoned two-story building, which once functioned as a tavern, had been converted in recent years into a free parking area for beachgoers.

The demolition program

The demolition program has resumed in Crete, as Cretalive has already written, after their long period of suspension. The demolitions of illegals on seashores and beaches across the country had been “frozen” in March 2021, with an amendment by the Ministry of Environment and Energy that was constantly getting extensions until March 2023, citing the economic loss of the illegals.

The last extension expired and was not renewed after the government studied, on the way to the polls, to crack down on any urban planning illegality on the island of Mykonos. It remains to be seen if, post-election, the case will be re-evaluated and the decisions changed. In the meantime, the Decentralized Administration of Crete is “taking advantage” of the “freedom” for the demolitions, and the second date for demolition has already been scheduled, within the next week.

The list of 400 demolition protocols

However, as the Secretary General of the Decentralized Administration of Crete Mrs. Maria Kozyraki reports to the “Economic Post”, the prioritization of the approximately 400 demolition protocols has changed, given that the June-September period is critical for the island’s tourist activity.

Thus, the initial list that had been drawn up based on the interventions of the Prosecutor, the antiquity or the seriousness of the violation, was restructured, initially excluding areas with a lot of tourist activity so that, as she points out, “we do not create a problem for businesses that are active in these areas, with legal permits, which have illegally occupied part of the beach”. According to the General Secretary, “we will intervene in these from October onwards”.

Most of the arbitrary ones are located in the northern part of the prefecture and mainly in the coastal areas of Heraklion and Lasithi and the demolitions will be done on a regular basis by the contractor who has undertaken the contract of 1.2 million euros.

Initially, according to Mrs. Kozyraki, self-contained arbitrary constructions are chosen, e.g. canteens that have been extended with pergolas and tables, etc. and from mid-autumn demolitions will begin in hotels and shops of health interest that have illegally extended onto the beach and seashore.

The decisions

It took 10 to 15 years for the 400 demolition protocols of Crete, like thousands of others in the rest of the regions of the country, to become definitively irreversible. And as the years go by, what worries the heads of the Decentralized Commands responsible for the demolitions the most, is that the image of the tyrants depicted in the years-long pending demolition protocols is completely different from their actual situation today.

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