PRATO – “A lot has been invested in Prato sport in the last five years. On the Olympic swimming pool alone we are talking about 16 million euros. Then there are the synthetic surfaces in almost all the football fields in the area, the redevelopment of the various swimming pools, the ordinary and extraordinary maintenance. Of course, not all the problems have been solved but we must also have the honesty to see things done. Now we need to look to the near future. We need a true analysis of what is missing and why it hasn’t been done. And there is a need for planning, just as happens in schools: the season ends on 30 June, and the work must be carried out in the period up to mid-September”. The former sports councilor, Luca Vannuccione of the coordinators of the civic list “This is Prato Bugetti”, charts the course on the sports infrastructure front in view of the next legislative mandate.
It does this by analyzing the work carried out over the last five years and identifying what should work better. “More attention is needed when planning the works, otherwise the companies risk closing – explains Vannucci – just as we need closer collaboration with the federations and with Coni to have the technical support of experts in the field. In Prato we have more than 90 sports facilities, a program of interventions must be created that extends over time, thus also laying the foundations for high-level facilities. And I’m referring to the sports hall, the athletics track and the stadium. Furthermore, greater bargaining power is needed with the companies carrying out the work. There are many construction sites starting and great attention is needed.”
Regarding the main facilities in the area, Vannucci lists the priorities: “Athletics needs a facility dedicated only to this discipline. A facility that needs to be upgraded, which requires a new car park, and where the cycling track needs to be moved. The latter is a sport for which a dedicated training center must be built in the Macrolotto 1 area on municipal administration land. On the sports hall, however, a project is needed to redevelop the external part, creating two facilities: one for skating, the other multipurpose. Here we can also think about the help of private individuals to make it happen. The interior of the building, however, would need a definitive intervention: raising the roof.” Finally the Lungobisenzio chapter. “In line with what was said by Ilaria Bugetti we need to re-evaluate the whole area: goods yard, stadium, former general warehouses, and surrounding areas, – he concludes – we need a project shared with private individuals, which also concerns Piazza della Stazione. I say this: as a municipal administration in the last five years we have believed in sport and we have put real money into it. Now let’s start from the good things and organize a new program of interventions. As a civic list they want to defend these ideas and this vision of sport, with a view to common interest”.
