The seminars were conducted within the frameworks of the Twinning Cooperation Project with the Danish municipality of Guldborgsund organised by U-LEAD with Europe on 18 and 20 October.
Participatory approaches to local planning
The first day of the seminar featured the general Danish municipal planning system, including the overview of legislation in this area.
According to urban planning expert Dennis Grønbæk, 50 different aspects are taken into account for planning in the municipality of Gulborgsund: from natural and environmental factors to business interests and the location of industrial areas. The local residents’ opinions and attitudes are certainly considered.
Public inclusion begins at an early planning stage in the municipality via discussing narrow topics with citizens and conducting focused workshops. General meetings are also held in large towns for informal communication and collection of ideas.
Danish urban planner and architect Morten Størup presented various cases of municipal local planning related to the construction of social infrastructure (schools) and entrepreneurship. The expert stressed the importance of seeking consensus and cooperation between the public, local businesses and municipality authorities. For this purpose, Danish municipalities practice regular meetings with various stakeholders to find a common solution.
"It is important to choose the way to involve public participation very carefully, because if you choose the wrong way you can increase the conflict instead of decreasing it", Morten Storup said.
At the same time, Sheila Larsen, speaking about the case of developing a master plan for the renewal of Stubbekøbing, highlighted the importance of personal communication between representatives of the municipality and the public as well as the establishment of informal relations.
"Sometimes the citizens do not agree with our plans. We have to communicate with people to get to know what they want: it is much more important than what we want. At our meetings with citizens in the town hall we talked a lot, drank a lot of coffee, ate a lot of cookies and it helped us to prevent conflicts. When citizens’ opinion is taken into account, people have larger commitment – they feel that it is their project and then they love it," Sheila Larsen said.
Master plan and public inclusion
The second day of the seminar began with a story by representatives of the Danish municipality of Guldborgsund about the master plan of the tourist destination of Sydfalster and the plan for the restoration of Sakskøbing town centre. In both cases, it was of key importance to engage the public and take into account the opinions of all stakeholders.
Thus, the Project Leader of the development of Sydfalster master plan Frederik Cordes pointed out the need for a comprehensive SWOT analysis to generate a clear vision of the development of territory. He also highlighted the importance of prioritization and clarification of roles in planning. He noted that the interests of all stakeholders should be taken into account and, using the example of Sydfalster, outlined how the municipality of Gulborgsund collaborated with citizens, landowners, tourists and representatives of the tourism business and local associations.
Alongside this, Maria Engsig Østergaard, presenting the plan for the restoration of Sakskøbing town centre, stressed that it is necessary to pay due attention to the engagement of children and young people, because their parents are getting also involved with them. At the same time, it was emphasized that efforts must be made to attract the youth. For example, it is necessary to go to places where children and young people spend time (schools and local clubs), and it is also necessary to respond quickly to their requests in order to create an atmosphere of trust and have larger commitment from their side.
Another case concerned the restoration of buildings in the municipality of Guldborgsund, to which local authorities pay a lot of attention and provide funds under special purpose governmental-municipal programme.
"Under Danish law, municipalities can provide financial support to the restoration of buildings built before 1960. Depending on the situation, the state and municipality may compensate from 50 to 75% of the cost of restoration works. The municipality of Guldborgsund is one of the leaders in Denmark in terms of state funding for the implementation of such an initiative, in recent years the municipality has received several millions of Danish krones (DKK). Guldborgsund has many old buildings that need to be preserved. A Building Improvement Committee has been established in the city for property assessment, defining its architectural value and the provision of conclusions on the financing of the submitted projects," Christian Broen, urban planner from Guldborgsund municipality, said.
Feedback from Ukrainian colleagues
U-LEAD with Europe always tries to create a platform for experience and opinions exchange during its events. According to Ivan Dyriv, Head of Dolyna municipality of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast: "The presentations from Danish partners on municipal planning were extremely informative. I especially liked the initiative, which concerned the restoration of buildings of historical value and the preservation of their authentic appearance. It's great that Denmark has such programmes at the state and local level that are very interesting for us."
In addition to adopting experience from Danish colleagues, Ukrainian municipalities also shared their best practices in using citizen engagement tools.
On the first day, Khotyn, Halych, Horodenka and Dolyna municipalities shared their experience. At the end of the second day of the seminar, a presentation of Yasinia municipality was held.
The Danish partners reconfirmed their readiness to further share their experience and cooperate with Ukrainian municipalities.
This seminar is part of the Twinning Cooperation Project between the municipality of Guldborgsund and Ukrainian municipalities, launched with the support of U-LEAD with Europe at the end of 2021. It should be reminded that cooperation with the Danish municipality of Guldborgsund is developed by Horinchovo, Svaliava and Yasinia municipalities (Zakarpattia Oblast); Halych, Horodenka and Dolyna municipalities (Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast); and Hlyboka, Novoselytsia and Khotyn municipalities (Chernivtsi Oblast).