TARANTO – It should be the right time for the trade strategic document. After a long journey shared by the Commission for productive activities and the local employers’ and trade unions’ associations, the plan returns to the City Council today. «Finally – says Cisberto Zaccheo of Unsic – we have arrived at the definitive draft of the strategic trade plan and the conclusion of a journey that lasted many months. If it is approved we will be able to participate in the next tenders and access funding from the Urban Commercial District. We have given an acceleration to an operation that will have to act on the central issues of the plan itself which are the benefits for small and medium-sized businesses, for the relaunch of the urban commercial district”.
In fact, the document touches on areas ranging from fuel stations to restaurants, from medium and large-scale distribution to small local shops. Going into detail, the commissions worked for the redevelopment of the local markets, starting from the snapshot of the current situation, and then starting targeted actions on individual areas. They worked on a better qualification of the commercial businesses especially in the Borgo and Città Vecchia. A point which Confcommercio is also particularly happy with, having already appreciated the measures introduced by the municipal administration to combat the crisis in neighborhood trade, such as the encouragement of new activities in areas of high desertification, the no tax area, contributions for interventions of decoration of shop windows and shutters. «These are initiatives – explained Tullio Mancino, director of Confcommercio Taranto – that we are bringing to the Province, with a memorandum of understanding aimed at updating the plans by assuming this type of commitments».
The new document introduces, in areas at risk of desertification just like the Borgo, the measure of reward for newly opened applications. Especially where the possibility of attracting tourists is higher, the associations have proposed some ideas to elevate the offer: menus and staff who speak the double language and diversification of the proposal to welcome all customers, whether they have food allergies or have chosen not to eat meat. The intention is also to regenerate some containers as happened for the Banco di Napoli building with the Coin group, encouraging the establishment of those large distribution chains that can be attractors for customers.
«We then asked – adds Mancino – to the municipal administration of Taranto, if not at this stage even after the approval of the Plan, regarding the issuing of authorizations for medium-sized structures, the reduction from 400 to 200 meters of the distance currently established to locate private parking spaces, in case of lack of parking spaces in the structure. The relevant legislation provides for this exemption”.
For the president of the Productive Activities commission, Goffredo Lomuzio, there will be time to integrate new measures into the document, in the meantime he feels optimistic about today’s vote. «There was great collaboration – says he-him between the majority and the opposition». A point that was very close to the hearts of the associations that participated in drafting the plan concerned the medium-large businesses that proliferate in the suburbs. «We cannot block its birth – explains Lomuzio – but we can direct it. As is happening with Lidl in Talsano which supported the administration in the creation of the new multi-purpose sports centre.”
