Brinek: Building site in Kottingbrunn
Building site in Kottingbrunn: Ombudswoman Gertrude Brinek is outraged by 30 years of governmental inactivity
ORF-Series "Bürgeranwalt" (“Advocate for People”) – Broadcast of September 27th 2008
Should a municipality be allowed to stand idly contemplating a building project that still hasn’t been completed after thirty years? Should local residents tolerate an excavation pit in the middle of their town being used or decades as a waste dump?
Kottingbrunn: A building permit was issued some 30 years ago for a building complex of three residential buildings with nine apartments each. However only one of the projected buildings was built and next to it a deep excavation pit was left empty. As time went by the pit, in the middle of the town of Kottingbrunn started to be used as a waste dump. Deadlines were extended one after the other and there was a change in the building project – that was never realized. Years of inactivity went by during which the building party and the responsible authorities had no contact.
The case was started by the neighbors whose fire-proof wall, overlooking the excavation pit, had been showing signs of serious humidity damage for years. The erection of a scaffold to repair the drenched fire-proof wall would only be possible under difficult circumstances due to the excavation pit.
The local residents finally applied to the Ombudsman Board for help.
Ombudswoman Gertrude Brinek issued the following assessment of the matter: “According to the Lower Austria building regulations back then as well as now, a building project has to start within two years of permission and has to be completed within five years. The only other possible option is to request an extension of this deadline for five additional years that can be granted only once. It seemed incredible that three decades could have elapsed without any authority having done anything serious to solve this endless affair!”
The situation can now be summed up as follows: bulky waste and parts of a rusty crane overgrown by wild bushes fill the excavation pit, “inconceivable conditions, which should have called for urgent action on the part of the local authorities long ago. After a big storm in 2002 the only thing that was improved was that the construction site was secured, though danger was imminent.” according to Ombudswoman Gertrude Brinek “this was clearly not enough!”
During the broadcast the town mayor promised that the fire-proof wall would be repaired during the following weeks. The municipality was ready to fund the operation.
Windradelteich / Guntramsdorf: An End to Unfair Pricing
Good news from the Windradelteich, a bathing pond in Guntramsdorf, after the case was examined by the office of the Ombudsman Board:
In the ORF- series „Bürgeranwalt“ (people’s advocate) – Broadcast of July 19th 2008 the Ombudsman Board reported on the local recreation area popular among swim guests. The broadcast focused on the higher price charged for the season ticket to all those who were not residents of Guntramsdorf.
The municipality agreed to end the discriminating pricing, and so put an end to the infringement of the principle of equality. The prices have been standardized for residents as well as for visitors.
Ombudswoman Gertrude Brinek: “In municipal facilities the same rules should apply to everyone! This year every senior citizen paid the same price for a season ticket.