Clear your things from the park!
CORFU. Catering businesses receive a flurry of legal warnings, while the Regulation remains under review by the Decentralised Authority.
Businesses in the area have been called upon to remove their outdoor tables and chairs from the Garitsa and Anemomylos Park. According to sources from the Catering Association, extrajudicial notices originating from the Forestry Service are being served. The Service maintains the position it had expressed during the recent tug-of-war between the Municipality and the residents’ association regarding the number of square metres of land granted to food service businesses in the area.
Meanwhile, the competent municipal department has not yet renewed the businesses’ permits for use of the space under the recently approved Regulation, as the relevant decision has not yet been returned bearing the “approved as lawful” stamp from the Decentralised Authority, which is responsible for reviewing the legality of such decisions.
Given these developments, many of the business owners operating in the park—even some of the longest-established among them—are considering selling and leaving. In any case, they state that they may not operate during the current summer season, after years of continuous activity.
According to announcements by the municipal authority, the matter will ultimately be decided in court, as part of a legal dispute between the Municipality and the Forestry Service. However, a crucial issue remains whether—and to what extent—the Forestry Service had approved the park’s redevelopment study, which provided for the allocation of up to 45 square metres to each business. In its latest intervention, the Service is reportedly calling for the removal of all businesses and permitting only the creation of a single municipal refreshment kiosk within a limited area.
GIORGOS KATSAITIS
