Cretan beaches swarming with illegal structures
An attempt is under way on Crete to get the bulldozers back to work as the two-year suspension of demolitions on the island has led to an increase in illegal structures erected on its beaches.
Indicatively, 154 demolition protocols are pending in Iraklio, 130 in Lasithi, 80 in Hania and six in Rethymno.
In response, the Decentralized Administration of Crete began demolitions on the seashore around a fortnight ago, while on Thursday a two-story illegal construction on Tobruk beach in Iraklio was demolished.
“It used to be a cafe and restaurant, it had ceased to operate years ago. It must have been there for at least 25 years,” said the general secretary of the Decentralized Administration of Crete, Maria Kozyraki. A meeting on Friday will decide how to continue the demolitions. “We are already in the middle of the tourist season and this obliges us to reschedule. We have to select arbitrary buildings that are ‘isolated.‘ We cannot now demolish arbitrary buildings in crowded hotels or inside tourist complexes,” she said.
The biggest problem, she noted, is the sense of immunity caused by the two-year suspension. “We go to execute a demolition order for an arbitrary 50 sq.m. building to find it has become 150 sq.m. Almost all arbitrary buildings have doubled or tripled in size.”
Apart from the extensions, illegal structures have also multiplied, with roughly 135 new demolition protocols issued in the last two years and those pending amounting to 370. “The suspension has caused a lot of damage,” Kozyraki said, stressing that the state not only failed to fulfill its constitutional obligation to protect seashores, but tripped itself up.
In the years before the suspension there had been momentum, she said. “We had found resources (€1.2 million from the Green Fund), we put out a tender and had a contractor since the end of 2020. And as soon as we started, in early 2021, everything turned upside down.”
