Mayor's response on the issue of the bars prohibiting the passage of vehicles in Chora - Capsule

In recent days, «information» has been written and circulated that not only has nothing to do with reality, but aims to show that the members of the municipal administration are acting of their own free will or that there is a difference of opinion between them. In order to restore the truth, I clarify the following:
1. The installation of iron fences (barriers) prohibiting the passage of vehicles is illegal, despite the fact that in practice it has been practiced for many years. It constitutes a local traffic regulation that can be decided by the Board of Directors, but is subject to the mandatory control and judgment of many public authorities (including even the General Accounting Office!) and must be published in the Official Gazette. In practice, such decisions are almost never approved by the legal procedure, and there are dozens of cases of municipalities that have been waiting for many years for the publication of their local traffic regulations in the Official Gazette.
2. The above procedure was bypassed in the years 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, as to avoid overcrowding, the legislature established a simple procedure for the passage and approval of such regulations, which our Municipality has followed for the past 2 years.
3. SUMMARY. 7 of article 65 of Law 4688/2020, as amended and supplemented by article 26 of Law 4736/2020 and by article 110 of Law 4876/2021, it was established that: «7. For imperative reasons to address a serious public health risk consisting in reducing the risk of spreading the COVID-19 coronavirus, temporary traffic measures and space increase arrangements for the convenience of pedestrians and people travelling by soft means of transport shall be imposed as preventive measures and for the strictly necessary period of time. By decision of the Quality of Life Committee of the relevant municipality or the relevant region, which is issued in derogation of Article 52 of the Road Traffic Code (Law No. 2696/1999, Α57) and article 225 of Law No. 3852/2010 (Α 87) and after a study by the Technical Service, it is possible to prohibit the circulation of vehicles on roads under their jurisdiction, either for certain hours of the day or for the whole day, as well as the temporary prohibition of stopping and parking, provided that the passage of emergency vehicles and the passage/stopping/parking of vehicles of permanent residents and disabled persons is unhindered. By similar decision, it is possible to create temporary pedestrian traffic corridors, temporary bicycle traffic corridors and temporary creation of light traffic areas or light traffic roads with a reduction of the speed limit to thirty (30) km/h on local roads or in residential areas. The decisions in this case are valid until 31.3.2022. By joint decision of the Ministers of Citizen Protection, Environment and Energy, Interior and Infrastructure and Transport, the validity of this provision may be extended if the reasons of the first subparagraph apply.».
4. Unfortunately and despite the requests of all the Municipalities for an extension of the above regulation for this summer, this did not happen, as the competent Ministry (Interior) was negative. We as a Municipal Authority, we informed the political leadership from the outset, that the non-extension of the above decision will bring many problems to local communities and unfortunately we came true.
5. Based on the above, the yellow signs of the temporary traffic regulations that applied in the years 2020 and 2021 were removed from all settlements that were placed as they are NO longer valid.
6. In the case of Chora and Capsule, NOBODY ordered the removal of the removable fences and cones at the entrances to the settlements, despite the fact that even these are completely outside the regulatory framework.
7. Therefore, Neither the responsible Deputy Mayor gave an order to move freely the cars in August in Capsule and the Country, nor of course the Mayor revoked any «decision» of any other elected body. What is spread in the cafes is none of our business. The yellow signs were removed by order of the Municipal Authority because they are NOT valid. Common sense, however, and especially the safety of the hundreds of pedestrians who move through Chora and Capsule every night, requires in practice the existence of entry barriers to these settlements, even if it is not legally covered, an issue on which ALL members of the Municipal Authority agree. We would rather be sued for a temporary ban on entry to Chora and Capsali than for a - no kidding! - accident due to the free entry of pedestrians and cars (especially in the evenings) which any intelligent person would consider unthinkable. And this is the opinion of ALL members of our Municipal Authority.
8. Our view of legality is certain and does NOT change. If the same strong view had been held by our predecessors, we would NOT have illegal ports today (just one classic example). It was this view that led us, for example, to legalize the River Bazaar, but a matter that took us 5 long years. And there, unfortunately, there was a lot of speculation that fell on deaf ears.
9. The Municipal Authority, with all its executives and especially the Deputy Mayors, works night and day to improve everyday life through dozens of projects, to solve problems, to cover weaknesses and omissions of many years and all this with the least staff in the history of the Municipality, with extremely adverse fiscal conditions, with paranoid bureaucracy and with anonymous complaints that as unsubstantiated fall - and will always fall - into the void.