NEWS

Bid to restore walkway order

Exasperated by rampant abuse of the new pedestrian network around the capital’s principal ancient sites by motorists and coffee shop owners, senior Culture Ministry officials are calling on Athens traffic police and municipal authorities to step in and enforce the law. In a meeting late on Tuesday, the ministry’s top antiquities body, the Central Archaeological Council (KAS), decided to appeal to the Public Order Ministry to step up police supervision of Dionysiou Areopagitou, Apostolou Pavlou and Adrianou streets that wind past the Acropolis and the Ancient Agora. Motorcyclists routinely use the pedestrian streets as shortcuts through Plaka and the Thiseion areas which, following the pedestrianization project, suffer from a severe lack of roads. KAS will also ask the municipality of Athens to ensure that coffee shop owners keep their outdoors tables within the legal limits. All coffee tables will be banned from Monastiraki Square, and from the side of Adrianou Street facing the Agora site.

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