Sofia city hall rejected on March 10 the accusations that preparing a coup to change the zoning of 400 ha of land in the Novi Iskur municipality, as claimed by local residents and environmentalists last week.

As previously reported by The Sofia Echo, initiative committees from Koubratovo and Negovan, as well as Eco Mramor association, said on March 7 that the city hall was ready to give the land to cement companies, who would be allowed to start extracting raw materials around Novi Iskur in exchange for burning Sofia’s refuse.

“Regarding the statements made by Eco Mramor for a procedure opened by Sofia city hall for re-zoning of 400 ha of land near the village Koubratovo, Negovan, Chepintsi and Mramor, and the accusations of hidden agreements of the municipality with the companies, which extract cement-making materials, we state the following: Sofia city did not discuss these lands’ status change and no such procedure was opened,” the city hall said in a statement.

“Regarding the accusations that there was no public discussion of the master plan we remind that such [a meeting] took place in Novi Iskur region, where the four villages are located,” the statement said.

The residents of the four villages claimed that the public discussion was conducted on a non-transparent way, not allowing the residents to get to know the amendments made to Sofia region master plan.

“The statement that municipal representatives made ‘deals with the companies extracting cement-making materials, whom the municipal clerks want to propose the baled Sofia refuse for burning’ is no way responds the truth,” the city further claimed.

“As far as we are aware, currently there is procedure of environmental impact assessment of the project, which would prove whether the extraction of cement-making materials is possible at those 400 ha, which is conducted by Ministry of Environment and Water Affairs, but not by Sofia municipality. The Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works issues permits for quarries,” the city hall said.

It was wrong to link the project for extraction of inert materials with the project for construction of hard household refuse reprocessing installation in the region, the city said. In the same statement, it advised the residents of the villages Koubratovo, Negovan, Chepintsi and Mramor to turn to the relevant authorities if they feel pressure to do some activities against their will and if some companies are blackmailing them.

Contacted for comment, the chair of the Eco Mramor association Snezhinka Tsvetanova told The Sofia Echo that the proof of the statements that the city had negotiated with the cement companies is a publication in Bulgarian-language weekly newspaper Stroitelstvo Gradut from June 16 2007, in which the media reported Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov said on a July 12 2007 Sofia municipal council session that Holcim Bulgaria AD and Devnya Cement AD declared interest in using separated Sofia municipality refuse as fuel by cement production.

“This means there were negotiations with the cement factories,” Tsvetanova said. She also cited a September 29 2006 article in Bulgarian-language weekly Capital, which reported that it is very difficult to adjust the cement furnaces for burning refuse.

“Sofia city hall had not voted yet whether to approve for concession the lands of Mramor village but it did approve the lands of Koubratovo, Negovan, Chepintsi and Svetovrachane already,” Tsvetanova claimed.

She said it was obvious that a procedure on changing the land status had been started by the city, with its master plan maps showing the former “agriculture lands with no construction permission” of Novi Iskur already marked as “technically damaged terrains with a need of stabilisation”.