The government’s plans to transform the village of Kato Pyrgos and the wider Tillyria region into a “model green community” have become “entangled in bureaucracy” and have also been subject to unexplained budget cuts, the village’s mukhtar Nikos Kleanthous said on Tuesday.

He told business news website Stockwatch that of the original €2.2 million worth of funding allocated to the village in 2024 to finance the installation of solar panels on 100 buildings, only €1.5m has in the end been made available.

“In October [last year], we received a letter from the finance ministry informing us that amount had been reduced to €1.8m, without, however, clarifying the reasons. After payments to consultants who conducted some studies, the available amount was reduced to €1.5m,” he said.

He explained that he had initially taken the plan to install the solar panels to energy minister of the day George Papanastasiou, and that the idea was “to install solar panels on the roofs of homes or public buildings, which would provide free, or at least cheap, electricity to residents and potential investors”.

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“The idea was that free electricity would act as an incentive to attract investors, either in the agriculture, livestock, or tourism sectors, but also to bring back our villagers who abandoned the village, so as to revitalise the Tillyria region, which is slowly dying,” he said.

Then, he said, when President Nikos Christodoulides visited the village in December 2024, he pledged to transform it into the first “model green community” in the island, “within the framework of broader projects and plans for the revitalisation of the area, with a total value of over €20m”.

Following this, he said, the village council “ended up creating an energy office, which conducted a study indicating that it would be better to establish a company” alongside the other village councils which make up the combined Tillyria cluster authority, “which would manage the energy produced by solar panels and promote it to residents and businesses”.

However, he said, since then, “we have become entangled in bureaucracy, and the project is still in its initial stage”.

“People are anxious and complaining,” he added, before saying that with the aim of combating this, his village has decided to “hold an assembly [next month] for those interested” in the solar panel project.

There, they will be able to submit written applications to “participate in the company” which will manage the locally produced solar energy, “so that the project can proceed”.

So far, he said, 240 residents and businesses have expressed interest in the project, with it hoped that the first 100 premises will be fitted with solar panels by the end of next year, while all the energy produced will be shared among all those who participate in the company.

Papanastasiou, meanwhile, told Stockwatch that the reason for the delays is that no official has been pointed to head the project.

“In order for a project to be implemented, someone must have ownership and have responsibility for promoting [it] within a specific time period, but also for the progress of the process to be managed at regular intervals,” he said.

Christodoulides had said in 2024 that the idea of designating Kato Pyrgos as a “model green community” aimed at “climate neutrality, sustainable development and the upgrading of residents’ daily lives”.

He said the idea of a “green community” is a “pioneering project which is part of the broader context of a transition towards a climate neutral Cyprus”.

“This area was chosen as a model for the implementation of innovative policies, with the project including measures and actions which both improve the lives of residents and protect the environment,” he said.

In April, he had insisted that he is “personally monitoring” the government’s implementation of policies and projects in the region.

He then promised that he will remain “by the side” of local residents, “for whatever is needed, for any issue, any challenge which can be faced together”.