Local services
The details were presented at a press conference by Deputy Mayor of Debrecen Ákos Balázs and members of the local representative Ibolya Aurélia Orosz and József Hetei on Petőfi Square on the 14th of March 2024.
“The spring clean-up has started again this year in Debrecen, and we would like to inform the citizens of the city about it,” Deputy Mayor Ákos Balázs said. As he pointed out, at the beginning of this municipal term, the assembly adopted a new concept for city management, which strongly emphasises the green approach. This was also the time when regular spring clean-ups started in Debrecen. The city management concept has several measures that are also important from an environmental point of view, and several of them have been included in the recently adopted Green Codex measures, in particular to protect the city’s air quality.
The measures in the Green Codex were also open to the citizens of the city, who were able to give their views online, and some 60,000 votes were cast. As the opinions showed, the cleanliness of the city is extremely important for the people of Debrecen, as the measure “Cleaner roads for a healthier environment” ranked 5th in the poll on the importance of each measure among the 50 programmes of the Green Codex. This shows the importance of spring cleaning. The spring clean-up is under way, with large-scale machine cleaning of roads, cleaning of road verges, manual and machine cleaning of pavements, cycle paths and parking areas in the city centre and the Great Forest. The work will remove dirt and dust that has accumulated over the winter, reducing the amount of airborne dust in the city’s air. Ákos Balázs asked for the cooperation and help of drivers since parking spaces can only be cleaned if motorists leave them free for the duration of the works.This will be signalled in advance by those carrying out the work in the areas concerned.
“Spring cleaning also includes litter picking, due to the early spring mowing lawns, raking aerators, pruning shrubs, digging up, rotating and disinfecting playground sandpits, cutting back flowers, perennials and roses, cleaning and disinfecting benches, disinfecting and cleaning waste bins, cleaning bus stops and, for example, the underpass at Petőfi Square as well.
In addition to the spring clean-up, road maintenance, also as part of the Green Codex measures, will soon start with the cutting of kerbs. “This also reduces the amount of airborne dust that has accumulated on the pavement as they remove the dust and dirt that has accumulated on pavements over the years. Since 2020, some 17,500 square metres of pavement have been removed in the city, and this work will continue in the future,. The spring clean-up will now take place in all parts of Debrecen for an expected 5 weeks. A total of 130 employees from Dekert Ltd. and companies contracted by the municipality will be involved with around 400 small and large machines. A total of 5 million square metres of green areas in Debrecen are maintained every year, but the spring clean-up covers even more, 6 million square metres,” the Deputy Mayor added.
According to municipal representative Ibolya Aurélia Orosz, Petőfi Square is the gateway to the city, as it is where you enter Debrecen when arriving by train. The square has recently been renewed as part of the Green City Programme, and now offers a tidy and beautiful environment for people arriving home and visitors to the city. She has been a municipal representative for the district including Petőfi Square since 2014, and she is proud to say that this part of the city is becoming more and more beautiful. As she pointed out, the spring cleaning of Vincellér Street, for example, is underway in her district, and the residential area is being spruced up. However, in order to maintain this beautiful, tidy state, the care and attention of the citizens of the city is also needed, as it is in the interest of all of us to live in an aesthetic, beautiful city.
Municipal representative József Hetei emphasised every initiative and programme will only gain its true meaning and purpose if we can take care of its results, preserve them and thus make them sustainable. As a teacher, he and his colleagues at school also educate students to take care of our environment and protect the world around us together. He therefore asked the people of Debrecen to work together to keep the city clean after the spring clean-up.
Source: debrecen.hu
