High entrance fees and a structure that needs modernization. The minority in Loggia questions the present and future of the Brescia Ortomercato. And there is no shortage of criticism regarding the current management. «The increases are not trivial, they go from 370 to 450 per year also for retailers (i.e. greengrocers and shopkeepers) those who enter after 6am. Single entry for shoppers before 5am is also increasing” denounces Fabio Rolfi.
The opposition in Loggia compares the access costs for economic operators in Brescia with those of the Bergamo fruit and vegetable market. “The price comparison with Bergamo Mercati is singular. Bergamo is incredibly more convenient” adds the center-right leader.
Having made these assessments, the structure in via Orzinuovi represents an unexpressed potential for the city of Brescia. «Over the last decade, the supply of produce on the market has remained substantially the same and that space is slowly disappearing: the square is increasingly empty as are those of the wholesalers. There is a lack of vision of that area” declares Rolfi. So he rejects the strategic choices of the centre-left: «The administration must take a path. In recent years, inaction has prevailed, people have just scraped by and this has not led to any improvement in services for wholesalers and economic operators. The increase in tariffs to save the status quo is highly wrong” comments the opposition leader. The minority in the Lodge delivers its proposal to the public debate and aims to make the activity of the vegetable market even more central. «Why not combine the current vocation with the city’s need for a logistics hub? That structure can become the point of reference for a logistics service. Why have hundreds of vans making deliveries in the historic center and the rest of the city when we could imagine a coordinated service with electric vehicles based on what happens in Vicenza?” asks the leader of the League. For him, the revolution of the logistics service could start from the Ortomercato that would reduce vehicular traffic in the city and would significantly reduce CO2 emissions. A scenario that he had also included in his electoral program.
At the same time the minority criticizes the increase in access fees to the vegetable market and links it to the growth of bus passes, Tari tariffs and the cost of district heating: «Now there is the concrete prospect that the rates of sports facilities will also increase. We are only a year away from the installation of the Castelletti council, who knows what will happen in the future» adds Rolfi who recalls for the umpteenth time how the Loggia «has at its disposal the treasure of 70 million a year from A2A dividends».
