Thirteen summer bungalows right at the seaside suddenly “sprung up” inside the national park of Schinias, a NATURA 2000 protected area in East Attica. Local authorities declared that they were not aware of the constructions violating the laws and vowed to launch a probe.
The illegal constructions in a privately owned plot where 13 vacations trailer homes were located from 2015 to 2017, were revealed by state broadcaster ERT on Wednesday.
Speaking to ERT on Thursday morning, Marathon Deputy Mayor Christos Stamou claimed that jurisdiction for that area came under his municipality’s purview only recently and that the local authority was only now aware of the breach of environmental protection regulations.
“There were 13 trailer homes on this plot for 17 years. Then they left because the owner decided to evict them from his land, and now we have this. This plot is entirely inside the boundaries of the Schinias-Marathon National Park, which was classified as a Natura 2000 site with complete protection by presidential decree in 2000. Suddenly, within three years, these properties started being built, so that the trailers became luxury bungalows. The inspection mechanisms and relevant services will be mobilized,” Stamou said.
He also claimed that there are supposed to be eight guards patrolling the park on behalf of its management agency, who are responsible for identifying violations and infringements.
“Responsible for their demolition is the Marathon town planning department, which was informed about the violation just the day before yesterday,” Stamou added.
According to ERT, the case of this particular violation has been brought to the attention of the judicial authorities, which are conducting their own investigation into the matter.
PS bungalows are being built over a certain period of time, trucks and workers come and go and nobody pays attention #Greece’s overnight surprises LOL
so, what about wind turbines that sprung up in natura areas?
they’re a lot easier to see than bungalows, it should be easy to find them if anyone dares to look! or is it different when you have friends or relatives in government ministries to exempt you from the laws?
We’ve watched these bungalows being constructed on our visits to the beach over the spring and early summer. Never seen a sign of any of the eight people ‘guarding’ the area.