A correspondent writes to ask if there have been any developments in the Cavo Sideo development thing which we mentioned most recently back in November of 2008, so I decided to poke around. The most recent ‘hard news’ on this seems to come from January 2010:
The Environment Ministry has indicated it is unlikely to approve a controversial plan to build a large holiday complex and golf course on the eastern tip of Crete even though a final decision could take some time.
In response to a question from Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) MPs, Environment Minister Tina Birbili said the PASOK government is taking into account a decision last year by the Council of State, Greece highest administrative court, to halt the Cavo Sidero scheme. But she said a final decision would not be reached until the government has reviewed the present zoning plan for tourist resorts.
Protesters claim that the project – which would comprise five holiday villages, a string of luxury hotels and three golf courses – would damage the environment and be a heavy drain on water resources. British property developer Minoan Group (formerly Loyalward Limited) insists the 1.2-billion-euro project is environmentally sustainable.
via Cavo Sidero scheme on ice | ekathimerini.com .
Last month, an item in the Guardian seems somewhat ambiguous on whether the project is going ahead or not, although the government’s position seems to have changed … here’s the incipit:
A British property development company is planning five exclusive holiday villages, a string of “super luxury” hotels, three golf courses and a marina in one of the most remote and ecologically fragile areas of Greece.
The 7,000-bed development planned by Minoan Group on 10 square miles of the arid, windswept Sidero peninsula of north-eastern Crete would be one of the largest tourist developments in the Mediterranean. The £800m project is strongly backed by the Greek government, and the local monastery that owns the land.
But last night, international ecologists and archaeologists said the holiday development would do “immense and permanent damage to a part of Crete which is of European significance”.
Dr Oliver Rackham, professor of historical ecology and master of Corpus Christi College at Cambridge University, who has written a book on the making of the Cretan landscape, said: “The development is grotesquely unsuited to the environment of this part of Greece. This is one of the most arid places in Europe. The development is unsustainable because of the huge amounts of water that will be needed.
via UK firm plans vast resort on fragile coast | Guardian
The latter seems to be connected to numerous stock analysts’ reports of the earnings of Minoan (the company trying to get the development under way) and at least one blogger-analyst (John Levinson) seems to think Greece’s current financial situation might encourage the go-ahead for this one:
The book value of the Cavo Sidero Project was £33.8m and it’s development is a long running saga and proposals for its development including joint ventures are active. Whatever happens to the Greek Government and the financial challenges, Greece will need to encourage foreign investment, so the prospects for this project remain.
… and I suspect he’s right. But we appear to still be in wait-and-see mode on this one.
rogueclassicism 