THE EAGLE. Shopkeepers increasingly disoriented by the extensions for construction sites and changes to traffic. Even if for now they return to loudly calling for a face to face meeting with the administration before undertaking any type of initiative.
nothing locked
This is the outcome of the meeting of around thirty shopkeepers from the historic centre, who met yesterday to discuss the possibility of a symbolic lockout of their respective businesses. Lockout originally scheduled for tomorrow, but apparently reversed, at least for the moment. The recent reassurances of the deputy mayor with responsibility for the reconstruction of public goods, Raffaele Daniele, who spoke on Monday to take stock of the construction site chaos in the historic centre, were therefore only partially enough to allay the concerns of those who have seen their clientele dwindle in recent months due to paving works. The declarations on the new completion times announced by the deputy mayor of L’Aquila in reference to the construction sites of the main squares of the capital, including the reference to the daily penalties applicable to companies that will not respect the expected delivery times, have in fact clashed with those made to in turn by the councilor for the municipal police, Laura Cucchiarellawhich intervened closely regarding the traffic of the neighboring streets: «Decisions on whether or not vehicles can pass along the Corso and the square (Duomo, ndc) will have to be hired soon. Everything is still to be determined.”
The two truths
«The new road system around the square is extended until September 30, but no one has the courage to tell the truth: the resurfacing of Piazza Duomo and Corso Federico II will lead to a ban on cars and the new road system will be permanent». Thus the opposition councilor, Paolo Romano, in a note, tries to flush out the administration by leveraging the contradictions that have emerged between the dates of reopening of the squares and those that will put an end to the changes to traffic. «Piazza Duomo has become the new emblem of how things don’t work. It will not be the first nor the last example, but it offers a clear demonstration of the work done by the council to date” Romano’s statement, which then also returns to the issue of penalties for companies. «In our territory there are enormous delays in the works of public works, but penalties are never paid because extensions are granted which often have no basis in the structure of the Procurement Code» he continues, pointing out that «even for the redevelopment works of the square Duomo there are penalties for delays which, in this case, should have already been applied when it was decided to grant the extension to the works. It’s time someone explained the reality of things, because those penalties are not just the result of failure to respect contractual deadlines, but a real damage caused to the community.” Damage which, according to the councilor of L’Aquila Nuova, should be mitigated, at least for traders, by «municipal economic measures, in addition to the unblocking of the compensation of regional law 32/2019, a law in force but never applied. The opposition has been asking for commissions to safeguard the life of the historic center for months. Unfortunately they are never convened because there is a fear of giving citizens a voice and co-planning interventions together. What do residents still have to wait for to get answers?”, asks Romano. «What do commercial activities have to wait for to have a concrete planning of city commerce?».
