Corfu District Court rejects Erimiti paths application
Erimitis
20 Δεκεμβρίου 2017
/ 08:55
CORFU. Corfu Municipality’s response to the court’s rejection of their application for an interim report.
On 13th December the District Court announced its decision (provisional measure) to reject the Municipality’s application for an interim expert report to accurately show the public - municipality paths leading to the beach in the Erimiti area.
According to the court’s decision, the legal requirements to make these paths public haven’t been met. Their establishment as public “wasn’t in a contractual form”.
The above decision applies as a provisional measure and is binding as such.
The following was the response from the Municipality in their press release:
“At the present time, the Municipality would like to state that:
The paths, which are narrow and can only accommodate one or two people, have not been established ‘in a contractual form’ but by the free and continuous use over time by the general public.
This long-term public use of the paths, which was not only accepted, but desired by the landowners, leads to their ‘de facto’ establishment as being public as the owner of the property cannot, according to the law, reverse their status.
Finally, the Municipality would also like to point out that:
There existed signs stating ‘Municipal Paths’ on these particular paths before 1998 and so the Municipality was recognised as the possessor of the paths by the original owners of the land and later by the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (TAIPED) and the company ‘New Corfu Property Development’, whose sole shareholder is currently TAIPED.
Therefore, there are serious legal grounds for the Municipality’s opposition to the decision of the District Court to reject its application.
Consequently, the Municipality is bound to conform to the court’s decision, but has the right and the duty, within the law and trusting in the judicial system, to continue to strive to prevent the destruction of these public paths leading to Erimiti beach and their consequent arbitrary conversion into roads to serve private marinas.”
According to the court’s decision, the legal requirements to make these paths public haven’t been met. Their establishment as public “wasn’t in a contractual form”.
The above decision applies as a provisional measure and is binding as such.
The following was the response from the Municipality in their press release:
“At the present time, the Municipality would like to state that:
The paths, which are narrow and can only accommodate one or two people, have not been established ‘in a contractual form’ but by the free and continuous use over time by the general public.
This long-term public use of the paths, which was not only accepted, but desired by the landowners, leads to their ‘de facto’ establishment as being public as the owner of the property cannot, according to the law, reverse their status.
Finally, the Municipality would also like to point out that:
There existed signs stating ‘Municipal Paths’ on these particular paths before 1998 and so the Municipality was recognised as the possessor of the paths by the original owners of the land and later by the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (TAIPED) and the company ‘New Corfu Property Development’, whose sole shareholder is currently TAIPED.
Therefore, there are serious legal grounds for the Municipality’s opposition to the decision of the District Court to reject its application.
Consequently, the Municipality is bound to conform to the court’s decision, but has the right and the duty, within the law and trusting in the judicial system, to continue to strive to prevent the destruction of these public paths leading to Erimiti beach and their consequent arbitrary conversion into roads to serve private marinas.”
