Eleven associations and committees from Piacenza (ACLI Piacenza, FATe PC (Fondo Ambiente e Territorio PC), Italia Nostra Section of Piacenza, The care of the forest ETS, Legambiente Piacenza (Emilio Politi club), VeloLento, Parco delle Mura Committee, Green Committee and Salute (former vegetable gardens in via Campesio and campo di via Morigi), Amici della Pertite Committee, Veggioletta Committee, “Tutto per S.Antonio e il suo campone” Committee) intervene on the so-called participatory path which should lead to the adoption of the PUG and essentially accuse the municipal administration of not truly listening to the citizens’ requests.
«As associations and committees that believed and still believe in the fundamental role of citizens’ participation in the public life of the city, we express profound discomfort and disappointment at the administration’s response to the appeal for participation in the Piacenza PUG.
The discomfort arises from the total closure to the requests raised by the appeal and the tones used in the press release towards associations and committees which not only have actively collaborated with the Administration for years on many issues with a constructive spirit but above all have accompanied the “participatory” path ” of the PUG while recognizing the critical issues, never missing either its presence at all the events and organized visits, or forms of active collaboration, as happened in the Neighborhood laboratories last year and at the Participatory Budget underway now, in the certainty that sooner or later there would also be the necessary participatory discussion desired by all.
Stating that these realities intend to dictate, pro-domo proper, the PUG to the administration is evidence of not having grasped the spirit of the appeal, but let us tell you, above all disrespectful towards the many citizens and voters who are represented by these realities . We would have expected a different return from this Administration which has always said it is attentive to the participation of its citizens.
The list of things done and described by the administration is the same as that we have detailed in the appeal but, as highlighted in the same, not sufficient to represent a true participation in contradiction of the citizens. No one has asked for a PUG written under dictation, on the contrary, exactly the opposite has been asked, a Plan resulting from a real comparison both on the themes and on the areas of the city between Administration and citizens and between various stakeholders, of meetings with administrators and technicians as real interlocutors and not only as listeners, of visits to abandoned assets, absolutely positive, but certainly not sufficient to satisfy the demand for knowledge of the contents of the PUG and the basic idea of the Administration, which in fact remains unknown.
A disappointment we mentioned which derives primarily from the concept of participation that the Administration expressed with the press release, unfortunately seen as mere information to citizens, carried out essentially through an enormous amount of technical documents to be read on the Municipality’s website, without the possibility of interacting with municipal technicians
A lot of information, never systematised, organized and brought to a synthesis to be brought to the attention of the city to allow everyone, whoever wanted it, to understand and know the basic idea that the Administration has of future development from an environmental point of view, economic and social of Piacenza. All this with one major absence: real listening to citizens.
Even where there were moments of listening, such as the guided workshops, specifically the initial one on 25 February 2023 and the one within the neighborhood workshops on 7 June 2023 in Piazza Cavalli, there was a lack of reporting to the citizens of what was discussed and above all of what was received by the Administration for the purpose of drafting the PUG, just as the collection of stakeholder hearings carried out by Council Commission 2 to present them to the city and make them available to citizens has been totally lacking up to now.
What is not participation is certainly taking on the PUG at the end of July, quickly, with the due “kind concession” of expressing the observations from September and scheduling the last two meetings, especially the very important one, due by law, of the presentation of the PUG to the city by the floor technicians, in the middle of the holiday period of the people of Piacenza.
It would be equally “dutiful”, in our opinion, for the good of the city, to postpone the adoption of the plan to allow, in the autumn, to carry out those meetings to discuss the issues and areas of the city which have not been carried out to date and which the city asks.”
