Public consultations on the draft “Lower Silesia Strategy until 2020” took place on Monday, 17 December, at the Old Theatre in Bolesławiec. Earlier, however, a press conference was held in the theatre foyer with the participation of the deputy marshal of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship Jerzy Łużniak, county head Cezary Przybylski, deputy county head Stanisław Chwojnicki, and member of the Bolesławiec County Board Dariusz Kwaśniewski.
“This is already probably the 59th or 60th meeting concerning the Lower Silesian Voivodeship Development Strategy,” said Jerzy Łużniak. “We are meeting with representatives of counties, subregions and various types of organizations.”
As the deputy marshal emphasized, the Strategy is not a closed document. “We have to keep working on it,” he added. “When we started working, the document was several hundred pages long. Now, as we finish it, it is about 40 pages. We are trying to extract the essence rather than produce waste paper.”
Cezary Przybylski took the floor: “For Bolesławiec County, an important matter is for our county to be connected with the Legnica-Głogów Copper District. At present, we are in three functional areas, but we would like the entire county to be part of the LGOM. Another key task for us is the continued reconstruction and modernization of road 297 as a route connecting the south and north of the country.”
“We want to emphasize our connection with the LGOM. Firstly, for historical reasons. Secondly, because many county residents still work for companies in the Legnica-Głogów Copper District, and thirdly, because of KGHM’s investment plans,” Dariusz Kwaśniewski noted.
“We are also wondering whether the authorities of Lower Silesia should create an eleventh intervention area covering the northwestern part of the voivodeship, which, for geographical reasons, we would like to call the Lower Silesian Forests,” Kwaśniewski continued. “Zgorzelec, Bolesławiec, Legnica, Polkowice and even Lubin counties may have a common interest in building a tourism product based on the largest contiguous forest complex in Poland. This place has fantastic potential, but it has not yet been used.”
Deputy county head Stanisław Chwojnicki, in turn, presented a proposal for the strategically and defensively important county road from Bolesławiec to Świętoszów (the location of the largest military concentrations) to become a voivodeship road. He also mentioned that a bridge over the Kwisa would need to be built. The investment is expected to cost approximately PLN 10 million (it must be a structure with very high load-bearing capacity so that heavy military equipment can cross it).
During the conference, Jerzy Łużniak emphasized that local interests are the interests of Lower Silesia. “There is no discrepancy between what the people of Lower Silesia want and what the Voivodeship Board wants,” he assured. “We are representatives of the people of Lower Silesia, and they should tell us how Lower Silesia should develop.”
We will return to this matter. More information about the county authorities’ proposals can be found on the office website.
(information: ii)