THE FINAL decision required to open a controversial waste dump in Pezinok was issued on March 2. Neither numerous public protests by the city’s residents and municipal officials, nor support from other politicians prevented the Environmental Inspectorate from sealing the decision to allow the dump to open, the Sme daily wrote.
Now that the owners of the dump have received this permission, there is nothing to prevent the dump from opening, the director of the Environment Inspectorate, Miroslav Held, said. His office did not evaluate the protests of the city and the residents-activists who claimed that the dump was not in accordance with the Pezinok’s general zoning plan.
“We have told the residents of Pezinok a hundred times that we cannot change the decision of another state organ,” Held told Sme.
The regional Construction Office should have noticed the conflict between building the dump and the city’s general zoning plan, but they did not. The regional Construction Office at that time was led by Ján Man Jr., a nominee of Smer and the owner of the land under the dump, Sme wrote.
“The offices have always been fast when it came to the interests of this company,” said Pezinok’s Mayor Oliver Solga, as quoted by Sme.
“It is another example of the arrogance of power on the part of bureaucrats and builders,” said Marián Šípoš from the civic initiative Waste Dumps Do Not Belong in a Town (Skládka nepatrí do mesta) about the final permission for the dump to be opened.
The city and the activists have appealed the case to the Supreme Court, Sme reported.
