City Council adopts list of measures for special school building construction programme: 40 million euros to be invested
Yesterday afternoon, the city council approved the list of measures for which funding from the Free State's special programme will be applied for from the Sächsische Aufbaubank. It followed the administration's list of proposals, which prioritised 21 schools for refurbishment, by a large majority. A total of around 40 million euros will be available for school refurbishment in 2013 and 2014 through the funding programme, of which the city will contribute just under 24 million.
The list of measures, which included 21 particularly urgent measures (priority 1) and a further ten measures of almost the same urgency (priority 2), was the subject of a participatory budgeting pilot project in which citizens were invited to discuss and vote for a fortnight. Almost 7,000 users took part, mainly on the Internet, by post or by dialling 115. Lord Mayor Barbara Ludwig commented: "The online discussion was a pilot project in which we all - administration, city council and citizens alike - were able to learn a lot. We would not have expected the high level of participation in the first process of this kind. The constructive, objective and fair way in which the participants dealt with the topic, expressed their opinions and also discussed among themselves emphasises the importance of the chosen topic." The measures from Priority List 2, which were rated as particularly important in the online participation, are now to be taken into account in the budget planning for 2014 to 2016.
The administration had compiled the projects now approved by the city council according to various criteria: In order to improve fire safety at the schools, the establishment of a second escape route has top priority. Schools with significant structural defects for which planning already exists were also taken into account. The requirements of school network planning were also incorporated into the proposals.