“The Clean Transport Zone should be much smaller and people who for special reasons cannot afford to change vehicles should enter it without any restrictions,” said Dariusz Figura, president of the Law and Justice Club, in an interview with the wPolityce. pl portal.in Warsaw Council.
READ ALSO: Warsaw residents do not want a clean transport zone. “Does not make any sense”; ‘Such a resolution violates fundamental rights’
wPolityce.pl: How do you respond to the Warsaw Council resolution on the introduction of the Clean Transport Zone?
The ruling coalition, and especially President Rafał Trzaskowski, tries to tell residents what is good for them – usually without asking for their votes. As for the resolution on the Clean Transport Zone, the turnout shows how fictitious the public consultations were and how much emotion this topic evokes. Practically speaking, what happened at the Warsaw Council meeting was the first real phase of consultation. Unfortunately, residents of the capital who were interested in the SCT issue were not allowed to attend the session because some of them were behind the doors, even though they have the right to participate in the meetings of the Warsaw Council.
The resolution was passed with the votes of the ruling coalition, but with virtually no support. It is worth noting that we, as councilors of Law and Justice, residents of Warsaw, and actually no one from the Civic Coalition – only the chairman, as I understand it for official reasons, had to speak. This resolution was not even championed by the Civic Coalition council members. By the way, they changed the city’s proposal. This shows how much support there is for this topic.
What form of air protection in Warsaw do the Law and Justice councilors propose?
In our opinion, there is no reason to introduce these kinds of radical solutions, because there are plenty of other methods to fight for clean air. This is what unites us, because as PiS councilors we want clean air in our city, but many things in Warsaw that should happen in this regard simply do not happen. If these types of solutions are introduced, they will certainly not be in the form proposed.
The Clean Transport Zone should be much smaller and people who cannot afford to change vehicles for special reasons should enter without any restrictions. The resolution suggested that this could be the case for people over the age of seventy, while we proposed sixty-five. We also proposed abolishing all restrictions for families with school-aged children, so there are many things that need to change.
If such proposals are to be submitted, in our opinion the best form is a local referendum. Unfortunately, Civic Coalition councilors rejected this proposal three weeks ago.
READ ALSO: OUR REPORT. It’s hot for the Warsaw Council meeting! Those protesting against the Clean Transport Zone were not allowed to enter the hall
It is often said that the solutions adopted by the Warsaw Council will mainly affect the residents of the suburbs and towns near Warsaw. Has the capital’s city hall presented a solution to prevent communication problems for these people?
Absolutely not. You can imagine the effect of residents of towns near Warsaw commuting into the city by car and parking in residential areas, in an attempt to switch to public transport. However, this will cause a problem in these residential areas in Warsaw, and secondly, an influx of people to the already busy public transport, which is not particularly well developed in Warsaw. There are two metro lines, but all Central European capitals have three or four lines, so our network in Warsaw is not well developed.
Law and Justice councilors once proposed extending the agglomeration ticket to give residents of cities near the capital an incentive to switch to public transport. Unfortunately, our resolution in this regard was also rejected. The proposed resolution on the Clean Transport Zone does not provide incentives to use public transport or compensation for people who will be denied the opportunity to enter the central zone where traffic restrictions will apply.
Do you expect the Clean Transport Zone to be expanded soon to other neighborhoods, or perhaps to the entire city?
I don’t think before the local elections. However, one thing is worth paying attention to. All announcements of radical transport reforms, and SCT is one of them, and it is worth mentioning the TEMPO 30 zone, around which it is suddenly quiet, but this issue will come back, also the narrowing of streets, the elimination of parking spaces – all these were not included in President Rafał’s 2018 Trzaskowski program. However, they are being implemented.
If an election campaign takes place now, there will probably be no announcement of radical reforms, but if President Trzaskowski wins again, we can expect the return of these very radical ideas for changes in the city. This is in fact a copy of the leftist agenda from Western Europe.
Interviewed by Paweł Nienałtowski
READ ALSO:
– Gosiewska warns: The exclusion zone in Warsaw is much wider than we might think. It will affect us all
— Opponents of SCT collect signatures for a referendum. “The rejection by the authorities is an expression of their arrogance.”
– There is a request from PiS councilors and parliamentarians to the Mazovia Voivode regarding SCT! Politicians want the Warsaw Council resolution to be declared invalid
Source: wPolityce