Street Lights Turned off as Italian Town Fails to Pay Bills
Street lights have been turned off in a Sicilian town after local authorities failed to pay a million-euro bill for power supplies, Italian news websites reported on Tuesday.
Local residents of Monreale near Palermo -- a popular tourist destination because of its famous Norman cathedral -- have been forced to use flashlights in the evenings and some are warning of the risk of a spike in crime.
A local transport company also on Tuesday requested the seizure of property worth 600,000 euros ($786,000) belonging to the Monreale commune to honor another debt.
"The situation is becoming more and more dramatic by the day,"Massimiliano Lo Biondo, a local councilor from the center-left Democratic Party which is in opposition to the town's center-right government, was quoted as saying.
"Residents do not feel safe and shopkeepers are paying the consequences of a reduction in public services," he said, adding that the town would be forced to implement more cuts after being put on the power firm's non-payers list.
Many local governments in Italy are beginning to feel the pinch after years of reckless spending and amid a round of austerity budget cuts enforced by Prime Minister Mario Monti in a bid to rein in the public finances.
Source: Agence France Presse
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