The disputes over the new tent town continue. According to Prague, it may not be necessary
The plan to build a tent town for Ukrainian refugees in Malešice has a snag. The firefighters, who assessed the access roads on Tuesday and in the middle of the possibilities of the construction itself, came to the conclusion that it is necessary to cut down the bushes on the land.
“First we will say what it should look like and create a plan of the camp. When it is approved, the people in charge of setting up the tents come. In this case, it is us, the firefighters, “Martin Kavka, spokesman for the Prague fire brigade, described the entire process.
“We do not determine whether they should be cut down, but under what conditions we are able to build a tent town. We were then able to do that in a few hours, “he added.
The Mayor of Prague 10 Renata Chmelová (VLASTA) already on Wednesday List In the reports, however, she said that felling is not possible without permission. On Thursday, she added that according to the Nature and Landscape Protection Act, it is necessary to have the consent of the city district and allow the registered associations to participate properly.
“This morning, I received two applications for permission to cut down continuous shrubs from landowners, one from the Czech Post, the other from the municipality. It is 5,293 square meters of continuous shrubs, “said the News.
It would be enough to order felling
Applications should now go through a “transparent assessment process”, which is said to take at least three weeks. However, the tent town is scheduled to start operating on May 31.
According to the mayor, everything could be accelerated during a state of emergency. “It surprises me that the (mayor of Prague) will not order felling right away, when the tent town has to be there in five days,” she said, referring to the Crisis Management Act, which, for example, allows construction or felling without permission.
However, Mayor Zdeněk Hřib (Pirates) only asked for a felling permit.
Vít Hofman, a spokesman for the municipality, also admitted the possibility of using the state of emergency. “Although the mayor has not yet issued an instruction (to cut down), it will be resolved operatively,” the spokesman said when asked that the municipality was still counting on a deadline at the end of May.
“The town has not even started to be built yet. And that it will not be necessary in the end, but the number of refugees coming may still be decreasing, “he added later.
“It could be done”
Meanwhile, Chmelová spoke with the mayor of Prague 8, Ondřej Gros (ODS), about the already functioning tent town in Troja. And she heard from him that the town hall had not noticed a problem during the entire operation. “I am convinced that if it works like in Troja, it could be done in Malešice as well,” she said.
The decision to build a tent town for refugees from Ukraine who are not entitled to temporary protection was announced on Tuesday by Interior Minister Vít Rakušan (STAN). “Several localities were inspected, but these proved to be the only suitable ones,” Mayor Hřib then explained.
In connection with the migration crisis, the main station is to cease to function as an overnight area for refugees by the end of May. According to the plan, there will only be a counter where refugees will be divided into groups according to the right to temporary protection in the Czech Republic. Those entitled to protection will get into the standard system of entitlement to accommodation. The others will either move to Malešice or be returned to Hungary.