Request of local communities and NGOs from Budva: Skolj should be a forest park, delete the marina and the hotel

We are disturbed by the persistence of experts-planners who are working on the spatial plan of Montenegro and the spatial urban plan of Budva because they are still persistent in planning a marina for yachts and a hotel with 500 beds on the island of Sveti Nikola.

This is stated in the joint appeal for the protection of schools submitted to "Vijesti", which was submitted to the Minister of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism. Ani Novaković Đurović, to the author's teams for the preparation of the Spatial Plan of Montenegro (PPCG) and the Budva Spatial Urban Plan (PUP), the Commission for the revision of these two planning documents, as well as the mayor of Budva Milo Božović sent by representatives of the local communities "Stari grad", "Gospoština", "Podkošljun", "Bijeli do", as well as the Society for Sport Fishing at Sea "Širun", the Budva Catering Association and the NGO "Porat - Pizana Budva".

"Since 2019, we have been proving that the island should remain a nature park, that it is not rational or profitable to urbanize the island, that the current location was created by filling the sea and various fictitious machinations of buyers and banks, which are criminal acts, that the Parliament of Montenegro 2018 . the majority of DPS councilors, without discussion and discussion by raising their hands, were against 5.000 signatures of our petition and adopted the Coastal Area Plan, with a hotel and a marina. Strategic planning for the development of Budva is a matter of expertise and science, not of the party majority. No tourism worker, agency, businessman, tourist, citizen, NGO will agree to have any kind of hotel facilities on the island, because every day in July and August 4.000 tourists are transported to the most beautiful Mediterranean nature that Budva has to offer," the appeal states. Budva locals.

As they state, "it is enough to look at what the wild builder did in 1998-2000. years.

"He concreted 400 meters of sandy beach to make a dock where no one can tie a boat or a yacht. It destroyed the thousand-year-old Tunja bank and disrupted sea currents, fish habitats, underwater flora and fauna. It is obvious that the proponent of the plan does not know life in this area, because if the proposed construction is allowed, an entire living world that maintains the balance of Budva's biodiversity will disappear," warn representatives of local communities and the NGO sector.

Construction on the island, as they point out, would cause the degradation of the marine eco-system and the intense death of the fish fry habitat, which for centuries has found its best place to live there.

"Underwater meadows, Posidonia oceanica (sea grass), the largest underwater producer of oxygen, would completely disappear due to the aggressive frequency of noise, gases, the smell of gasoline from numerous vessels, waste... The island in front of Budva still possesses biodiversity vitality and stabilizes and slows down the processes of climate change. It is unreasonable and inexplicable that the Ministry, which has ecology in its title and fights for the quality of water, air, healthy environment, waste collection, and the like, is at the same time planning a total aggression against Budva's most valuable natural resource. You will admit that it is a kind of planning and investor scandal. In all plans since 1945, the island of Sveti Nikola was planned as a forest park. This was respected by all authorities and experts, until state privatization favored individual, close and personal interest over the common good and public interest. The experts who planned the "Budva Center" and in just 10 years depersonalized, devalued and brought Budva, the city with the most opportunities on the southern Adriatic, to functional and economic unsustainability, are still hiding," the locals pointed out.

They called for the observance of Article 23, paragraph 1 of the Constitution of Montenegro, according to which everyone has the right to a healthy environment.

"This means that the island of Sveti Nikola in the plan of PPCG and PUP Budva remains a forest park and that we upgrade it to a botanical reserve. Also, we invite you to have the entire author's and auditor's team visit the island of Sveti Nikola together with us", the appeal states.