Court overrules state in Keratea landfill row
An Athens court yesterday rejected an appeal by the state against a previous decision by a tribunal in Lavrio banning the construction of a new landfill in Keratea, southeastern Attica.
The Lavrio ruling had called for works to stop at the site, which earlier this year became a three-month battleground between residents protesting the landfill and riot police.
In the middle of last month, signs of a breakthrough appeared to emerge in the deadlock between authorities and residents of Keratea, when officials representing the broader municipality of Lavreotiki proposed the construction of a sanitary waste facility and a garbage processing plant on a site next to the old local landfill. Tina Birbili, who was Environment Minister, at the time appeared receptive to the proposal in principle as it does not change the government?s broader waste planning strategy dramatically. Birbili’s successor Giorgos Papaconstantinou, the former finance minister, has not stated his position on the issue yet.
