The former mayor of Castellammare and former parliamentarian Salvatore Vozza intervenes with a strong leg and a long reflection, speaking about the problems of the city but above all about future ideas.
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“A break to define a coherent plan for transportation.” This is how Vozza begins his long speech. He then adds: “Together with the discomfort caused by the municipal dissolution, the disappointment for the problems that accumulate without finding solutions, we feel - without hiding our mistakes - that choices are being made without taking into account the needs of the city.”
The latest proof of this is the EAV affair for the Circumvesuviana.
“Castellammare appears to be a “suspended city”, an image I have used on other occasions: on one side the spa torn from the city, the Meb dispute relegated – after the catwalks of the previous months – to the bottom of C.so De Gasperi, the conditions of our neighborhoods, the uncertain and unclear choices that penalize our hospital.
On the other hand, concrete possibilities and resources to actually carry out interventions around Fincantieri, the two Ports, tourism, catering and hospitality, the reconversion of abandoned areas and structures. But these are resources and opportunities that we could lose, if we don't get busy, if we don't force the other levels that contribute to the governance of the processes that fall on our territory, to commit themselves seriously (A partial example: just what is planned for Savorito, Centro A. Terme A, FFSS Gragnano-C.mmare-Torre line, is worth 80 million euros).
Positive signal from the Region on the new health facility at the Spa
“In this picture of light and shade, the first positive signal emerges for the willingness of the Region to evaluate the construction of a new health facility in the spaces of the New Baths; remembering however that this signal does not erase the blow that the city has suffered with the closure, bankruptcy and devastation of the Solaro thermal structure.
Therefore, in this complicated passage, a different effort is needed from everyone.
And we must defend Castellammare not in the name of old and inconclusive parochialism, but with a project and by building an institutional, associative and political network, starting from the relationship with the mayors of the district.
We must do it now! Then the time will also come for ambitious programs that will be presented for the elections, to avoid that, while we hypothesize what future to build, they "steal our present" and what is due to us.
This is not an unfounded statement, the amount of funding we are excluded from is impressive:
– PNRR port facilities 375 million euros (Na and Sa): Castellammare excluded;
– EAV 292 million euros for the C.mmare Plan – Sorrento: in reality no choice is made to truly invest in C.mmare. Varano is tunnelled, a part of the city such as San Marco is isolated and not a word is wasted to clarify how the commitments undertaken are planned to be maintained (the new C.mmare Pioppaino, Centro, Terme stations and the new
parking).
The emptying of the Hospital, a first level DEA, finally completes this already heavy picture. Will we also witness the possible exit from the IMA (Acute Myocardial Infarction) network without saying anything, due to the senseless and desired block, despite the allocated funding, of haemodynamics?
These are examples that tell us an ugly story and the need to stop this trend. This can be done without slipping into superficial and non-constructive complaints, but by putting forward, together with fair and firm complaints, also proposals and solutions.
Let's try to do it from the Circumvesuviana story:
– I do not agree with the choices of the EAV: too many improvisations, commitments made and not kept (there are their press releases and resolutions that confirm this), a clear underestimation of the negative consequences of their programs on the city;
– it is a paradox that there are two Superintendencies operating, one that should be concerned with Villa Arianna and the other with the Belvedere: it is appropriate, instead, that Castellammare depends solely on the Superintendency of Archaeological Heritage of Pompeii.
– I don’t like the management of law 80: someone should explain how it was possible not to have completed works entrusted 30 years ago, and why the Pioppaino construction site hasn’t been opened yet and the one at the station on via Europa, after 6 years, hasn’t been completed yet. Are the commitments made with the consortium that prevent us from making the necessary corrections today?
I propose to stop everything, a suspension that allows us to delve deeper into the issues that have emerged and the new developments that have occurred.
I hope that the Commissioners will intervene, that Dr. De Gregorio, President of EAV, and the Region itself will take a strong initiative.
We need a shared plan for transport and mobility that takes into account the entire stretch from Naples to Sorrento, and also the highly valuable connection with Faito.
The territory, the set of cities, of the activities present, starting from tourism, cannot see resources being wasted in the absence of a coordinated plan; for the Torre Annunziata – Sorrento section alone we are talking about over 350 million euros, without considering 32 million to modernize the FFSS section of Gragnano-Torre.
We must stop also because there is no emergency plan, even if only to implement what was foreseen by the EAV, to deal with the years of work needed to complete the works. And for me - I repeat - it is not acceptable!
I ask again: to carry out the works on the line, for a time that is expected to be not short, is it true that some evening trips will be eliminated?; and those who think of not stopping the tunnel and underpass, what have they studied to solve the problems for the identification of alternative routes for S. Marco for the next 4.5 years?
Let's stop, after thirty years of delays, a few months certainly can't cause any inconvenience.
Instead, let's work on an updated plan, which also includes rubber, sea routes, the parking system. A plan - this seems to me the point - that could change the life of citizens for the better, and the quality of services in a territory and a city like ours; as well as a serious response to the great environmental challenge.
A challenge that builds an interaction between transport and one of the richest and most extraordinary archaeological sites in the world, which along the route of the rails also enhances and valorises it with “museum” stations, with moments that anticipate the story of what visitors will encounter when entering the archaeological sites, or climbing Vesuvius, arriving in the Sorrento Peninsula or on Faito.
Let's call a TABLE with EAV, RFI, Superintendencies, Port Authority, Anas, Municipalities, Metropolitan City and Region, to put forward a new challenge, to avoid having to take note of yet another failure and waste of resources.
Without this attempt it would be pure madness to continue just because we lack the courage to stop and correct."
Article published on March 12, 2023 - 11pm
