Demolitions on Cretan beach postponed

A series of demolitions scheduled on Tuesday to remove illegal constructions by businesses lining the beach of Ierapetra town on Crete have been postponed. 

Demolition crews arrived in the town with a large police escort but authorities had not taken care to evacuate the area from hundreds of citizens who had gathered there to obstruct the bulldozers. For their part, the proprietors are asking for a reprieve until October, promising that they will remove the illegal constructions themselves. Some 52 businesses on the beachfront have illegal pergolas.

However, according to Manolis Michelarakis, the president of the Ierapetra Cafe-Restaurant Association, the catering businesses have had wooden structures there for years, which the municipality requested in 2007 to be replaced, according to other specifications. 

“The mayor told us to build the structures in a specific way, they gave us specifications, there was also a municipal council decision. In fact, we also paid rent for the use of the space in the municipality,” he said, adding that the first demolition decisions were in 2015, while in 2021 and 2023 business owners were given two extensions, which expired. 

Michelarakis linked the case to a wider redevelopment, for the implementation of which there are no resources. “We are not asking that they not be demolished. If the funds are found for the redevelopment, we will demolish them ourselves. Let them give us at least until October,” he said.