Expat escalates ‘rubbish saga’ to Ombudsman
AN ESENTEPE-based expat is taking his complaints over the lack of rubbish collections by the local council to the Ombudsman.
Palm Homes resident Keith Ellis told Cyprus Today that the “rubbish saga” at the development remains unresolved and that there is “still no explanation” from Esentepe Municipality.
A month ago Esentepe Mayor Cemal Erdoğan told this paper that the rubbish collection problem would be resolved “within a week” and that his local authority was expecting to take delivery of a new refuse collection truck paid for by the EU.
Writing to Cyprus Today on Tuesday, an exasperated Mr Ellis said: “Today’s picture shows more broken promises from our mayor. No new vehicle has emerged and no rubbish collected for three weeks.
“Shame on you Mr Mayor and your empty promises. To add to the situation, we are experiencing our water turned off daily, but we understand the reservoirs are full! We have had enough so we are contacting the Ombudsman.”
Asked to comment on the latest development, Mr Erdoğan said that he is “not aware of” anyone in Palm Homes who continuously encounters rubbish problems and asked “the person to contact the municipality instead of complaining to a newspaper”.
He added: “The Ombudsman doesn’t deal with these kinds of issues, stuff like someone’s bins not being emptied. [The person with the issue] should see me directly.” Nobody from the Ombudsman’s office was available for comment.
Meanwhile another disgruntled Esentepe resident, Graeme Petty, said that his rubbish was collected after a three-week wait in a “truck that was about as old and decrepit as I am”.
“Clearly all the money that the residents of Esentepe pay for their barely existent services is not being spent wisely and has probably disappeared into the ‘Mayor’s’ vanity project at the beach,” he said.
Referring to previously reported problems with water pressure, Mr Petty added: “The water situation however is still as bad as ever if not worse. Yes, we get water every two or three days. . . Supposedly when the water from Turkey was switched on there were going to be no issues with delivery and lack of said water.
“Obviously Mr Erdoğan didn’t read the memo, or we are NOT getting Turkish water because the municipality have to purchase it, if I understand correctly, and instead we just get well water from municipality wells, which is not sufficient but doesn’t cost anything. Either way it is NOT good enough and steps need to be taken to remedy this pathetic situation.”
Mr Erdoğan had previously said he did not accept problems highlighted by this paper regarding water supplies as a “complaint”.