Yesterday Wednesday 8 May the “Citizen Committee for Defense of Green Space and Territory” delivered to the attention of the Mayor Tommaso Minervini, the Councilor for Public Works And related specific PNRR funding related and Deputy Mayor, Nicola Piergiovanni, the Councilor for Police, Environment, Healthy Cities and related specific PNRR funding related, youth policies, Caterina Roselli and the President of the City Council, Robert Amato, a letter in which requests an urgent meeting with the Administration.
“The Committee has already collected approx 1,000 signatures of Molfetta citizens in support of Petition attached, a support that expresses the great disappointment about the project PINQUA – Lot no. 2 – under construction on via Don Minzoni, in the Levante district.
The petition calls for immediate Suspension of the action to demolish the remaining ones Adult pines and theactivation immediate administrative procedure leading to the preparation of a variant planning whatever it may be Save the Vegetation already exists Carry out the arrangement of roads and pavements overlooking the green belt of the Pines so as to Ensure Health and Safety of citizens.
Vegetation represents an essential tool for the creation of an ecologically and economically sustainable city such as our beautiful Molfetta must be. Unfortunately in our city, it is now a fact, widely established, that there is a profound imbalance in the relationship between overbuilding and the provision and valorisation of the URBAN GREEN.
The presence of the green belt of Pines in via Don Minzoni it represents a sure improvement in urban microclimatic conditions, air quality, as well as our psycho-physical health and guarantees the maintenance of local biodiversity.
However, if there is no doubt that such Trees mitigate the urban climate, performing a strategic function in life quality of the neighbourhoods, there is however no doubt that today, as unfortunately has been the case for decades, the pavements and road surfaces need to be restored and rethought to guarantee not only the controlled circulation of cars, but first and foremost the safety of every citizen.
Therefore, we ask that the projects of urban greenery are responsive to a broader and more homogeneous green planning, currently absent, which provides for their correctness management and maintenance and is founded on recovery and not on theelimination of existing vegetation and processes urban afforestationgiven the current climate situation.
Today there are too few spaces dedicated to urban greenery and among these there are many closed or inaccessible, consigning them to a state of strong degradation and abandonment. We believe that all resident and non-resident citizens and users of green areas must be involved, from the beginning, Who is planning interventions in the area that concern the urban greenery and not only. Below is the text of the petition.” Let’s stop the felling of the trees on Via Don Minzoni.”
1) Research and propose, through the preparation of a “Variant”, alternative solutions that block the cutting of the pine trees on the three islands intact until now and protect the safety of pedestrians, cyclists and motorists;
2) Check the agronomic-botanical certification underlying the design choices as it does not comply:– to the sentence n. 9178/2022 deL State Council which states the need to technically provide a serious reason for felling a tree linked to actual phytosanitary and stability problems of the specimen to be carried out through in-depth technical-instrumental assessments and not just basing it on a “visual evaluation”;
– to articles 15 and 18 of the “Municipal Regulation for the management and protection of public and private green areas” approved with City Council Resolution no. 08 of 03/13/2015;
4) Review the replacement of felled trees with Lime trees due to the following problems complained of by the inhabitants of the area: highly allergenic pollen, caducity of the foliage, need for care and water, very little shade due to small foliage which would remain bare for half the year;
5) Review of the road section in relation to the protection of the pine trees, the redesign of the equipped areas near the homes and services (nursery, access to the park, entrance to the “Don Grittani” elderly center), road intersections (very dangerous);
6) Redefinition of equipped areas near safer clearings;
7) Definition of a cycle path (with particular attention to road intersections) that connects parts of the Levante district”.
