Paphos Life

The Paphos Municipality is proceeding in a significant upgrading of the night's appearance of the historic center of Paphos in a modern and impressive way.

Today, Mayor of Phaedon Phaedon signed with the contractor MILLIAMS ELECTRICAL CONTRACTORS LTD the Convention for the illumination of historical buildings and monuments in the center of Paphos, with a total cost of 470,645 euros.


In the framework of the project, the Municipal Library of Paphos, the Municipal Library "Christodoulos Galatopoulos", the Column of 28th October, the busts, the Dimitrios Primary School, the Nikolai Gymnasium, the Propylaea of ​​the Jacobi Gymnasium, the 1st Lyceum of Ethnarch Makarios III ', and the Costis Palamas-Fountain of Love.

Work will begin immediately and are expected to be completed within six months.


PafosPress

IMO 470,645 euros would be better spent at Paphos
General Hospital.

Agreed we were only saying the other day how shabby and grimy the hospital is. It would really benifit everyone , patients and staff alike if money was spent upgrading the whole building. Rather than spending the money on un necessary illuminations of the area around the town hall!

Dee

But of course the people who make these decisions.. NEVER use the General Hospital....

I agree with Brian, the money would be much better spent on the General Hospital

But it's ok for him to spend over a million euros on his legacy at the Konia roundabout at the start of the A6 ………………… or so some individuals on here think?


Shane

The Problem is The Mayor isn't responsible for the Hospital, funding comes from central government, not from the council funding, so even if he wanted to spend the money on the Hospital he wouldn't be able to

I've just added that area to the oldpafos.com site.

http://www.oldpafos.com/showcase/old_pa ... y_junction

The map still needs to be updated but the images are there now. Just follow the road round.

Yes, that area is right in the tourist area and it currently looks a mess, testament to half done works. Presumably an area which isn’t considered important....

Dee

As a town that relies very heavily on the income generated by tourists and other visitors I don't see how it can be wrong to try and highlight the historic buildings around Paphos. I believe that more needs to be done in this vein, not less. There are also hundreds of small business owners who are desperate for the Paphos Municipality to help attract visitors back to the old town area after the massive refurbishment project. It is a shame that as soon as they DO do something they are criticised.

Galini wrote: ↑Tue Nov 20, 2018 9:54 am As a town that relies very heavily on the income generated by tourists and other visitors I don't see how it can be wrong to try and highlight the historic buildings around Paphos. I believe that more needs to be done in this vein, not less. There are also hundreds of small business owners who are desperate for the Paphos Municipality to help attract visitors back to the old town area after the massive refurbishment project. It is a shame that as soon as they DO do something they are criticised.

Good Post.

Galini wrote: ↑Tue Nov 20, 2018 9:54 am As a town that relies very heavily on the income generated by tourists and other visitors I don't see how it can be wrong to try and highlight the historic buildings around Paphos. I believe that more needs to be done in this vein, not less. There are also hundreds of small business owners who are desperate for the Paphos Municipality to help attract visitors back to the old town area after the massive refurbishment project. It is a shame that as soon as they DO do something they are criticised.

Exactly what I was going to post.

Well said.

Totally agree Galini. Every time the council try to enhance the town many start complaing. Last week it was the motorway island, prior to that it was Tomb of the Kings Road and the Harbour Road and the fountains on the roundabouts to name but a few. The town is as you say a tourism centre and needs to attract tourists; as the old saying goes,"you have to speculate to accumulate".

As for the walkway it is more than likely under litigation and nothing can be done until that's sorted.

Jim

Some people like to moan about everything. It is a sad fact of life.

It's not always moaning - it's can be constructive criticism. How many tourists staying in the hotels will know about the illuminated buildings in the town. Paphos has two very distinct areas - a fair distance from each other. You could come on holiday and never find the old town. And the majority of those needed for the regeneration to work properly are going to be tourists/visitors. What is desperately needed is a method of getting those in A to B such as marketing, cooperation with the tour operators (such as Paphos old town walking tours), properly marketed shuttle buses up to town from the TOK and harbour areas. Yes it costs money but unless you can get the people a) to know it's there and b) to go there then it will not work. I do love what has been done in the old town and it would be fantastic if the regeneration worked but I do feel that Paphos Municipality is missing a good marketing executive.

Jeanne

I would agree with you there. Trying to find somebody who knows when events are happening in Old Town is proving nigh on impossible.

We are doing our best to promote the place with oldPafos.com. Once that is more established it will certainly be able to help.

It pretty much is free parking already. I see few tickets sold on my travels and even fewer inspectors.

I agree that the walkway needs to be finished, but I don't think developments in Paphos need to happen sequentially. There are all sorts of reasons, mostly legal I guess, why there is no movement on the walkway front. It goes back to communication though. If people knew what the delay was, then they might be more tolerant, or angry, depending on the reason.

You are quite right Dominic. I suspect there is more information on the walkway in the Greek language press. The problem is that most Brits can't read it, and as most don't live in Paphos anyway there an insufficient case to publish in English. Not a criticism but it's true.
The lighting up of significant buildings is not an isolated project. It is part of a much larger project to rejuvenate the old town and bring people (and their spending power) back there. The work done so far does seem to be working and should be encouraged, not denigrated.

The empty shops in the old town need to be rented out with some from of financial discount on rental available for small businesses. The sight of so many empty premises doesn’t make for a feel good turn on for tourists and locals. Why not allow shops to have different coloured sun blinds and attractive signs on the street so people can see what the various shops are selling without them having to get very close to peer through the shop window?
The streets need more colour to make them look more appealing.
The street also need to look more vibrant and interesting to help them compete with those in the Mall. I would like to see more shoppers in the streets every day and not just on Saturday mornings. I have noticed that the big busses have a job making some of the sharp turns in narrow streets in the old town, what might help is a small fleet of brightly coloured mini buses which are much more manoeverable could stop anywhere (within reason) to take shoppers from the Tomb of the Kings Rd up to and around the old town.
Dee
Dee

In all our time here we barely set foot in the old town. Since the redevelopment works, we go there a lot, I’m on mission to find the best carrot cake and coffee combo but that’s another story, so I can’t really compare if it’s busier or not. What I can say is that we had friends over recently and had a lovely morning going in many of the shops, chatting to the retailers, the lacy in the Carob shop in the Khan was very interesting to talk to. The conclusion we came to was that more needs to be done to encourage both a) locals to visit and b) tempt our tourist visitors up from the harbour area so they are visiting more of Paphos, not just AI hotels and bars. So I think I’m all in favour of lighting things up, to make it look good to tempt people up town, the suggestion of a shuttle bus would be a good one, and places like the Kahn should have events to get people up there - one on Saturday in fact that I hope to go to. Worked in London for many years, not a fan in day time, but looks great at night. Also agree with the comments about the walkway, but I imagine there some contractual issues going in there. From what I understand, the point about central v council budgets is spot on in respect of the hospital.

Ian