After the debate: the first real steps of political parties against the overbuilding of Vitosha

During his speech at the debate on 28th September, the mayor candidate from the Reformers block (RB) – Willi Lilkov got officially engaged to hand in a statement against the acceptance of the project plant for the management of Vitosha Nature Park. The plan is developed by Proles Engineering Ltd. in the framework of a public order for the amount of 561,600 BGN incl. VAT. Due to the active position on the topic by the municipal councilor from Marta Georgieva, the statement by the Reformers has been prepared in advance. The rest of the parties developed their statements after the debate.
Despite the shortage of time – only two days after the debate to hand in the statement (30th Sept was the deadline of the public consultation of the project for the management plan) – the rest of the political parties that participated – GERB, NFSB, DEOS and Serdica coalition, as well as the candidate for a regional mayor of Krasno Selo municipality Veselin Kirev, supported by the Green party, handed in their statements on time at the directorate of Vitosha Nature Park against the acceptance of the project of Proles Engineering Ltd.

Lorita Radeva (GERB) highlights in her position on facebook that the position of her party is in support of the rehabilitation, reconstruction and restoration of the existing installations (lifts and ski drags), hotels, huts, etc. without any new building activities outside of their current area of construction. They support the position that during the rehabilitation activities only environmentally friendly materials that guarantee the energy efficiency and environmental protection shall be used.

The management plan of Vitosha replaces the philosophy related to management of restricted areas, highlights DEOS in their position. Their candidate for a mayor Viktor Lilov participated actively in the debate and in their statement they underline that in the current plan “extension of the construction activities is furtively aimed”.

“The project for the new management plan does not guarantee the support of the expected societal needs for recreation and tourism and gives preponderance to investment interests over the societal”, state NFSB. Their statement has been signed and put forward by their candidate for a mayor Silvia Trendafilova. Moreover, she explicitly supports the exclusion of any new construction attempts in the management plan.

The mayor candidate Georgi Kadiev handed in a statement, too, where he highlights that the plan for the management of the park “entirely transforms the philosophy on managing of restricted areas and it cannot guarantee the conservation of the park in the future”. We would like to remind you that Serdika coalition has been represented at the debate on Vitosha by the candidate for municipal councilor Milla Vidina, who was very active in supporting the preparation of the statement by the coalition in the very short time frame of 1 day after the debate.

Veselin Kirev – independent candidate for municipal councilor, supported by the Green party, who also participated at the debate of “Green Laws” on Monday – has also handed a statement where he states: “Why do we perform a discussion on the management plan, but not having discussed publicly the project assignment itself? If the assignment states that the mountain should not be used for construction or hunting activities, this should be clearly written in the plan. But if the assignment leaves the doors open, than…?”

As we already announced, we at “Green Laws” have also put forward a statement where we insist that the project has to be returned back for re-work and removal of significant gaps and shortages. We state that this project is not completed, since a significant part of the requested by the assignment information within the given materials is missing. Moreover, the targets and regimes allow for construction and felling, against the goals of the protected area and the results of the sociologic research for the required goals for the park management by the society.