Winter service: Two votes, no result

Created: 07/01/2022 17:14

By: Peter Schiebel

Now who has to?

After a curious vote, the Starnberg city council will soon have to discuss the question of who has to clear certain sidewalks.

© Tobias Hase

Should the city have sidewalks that are not on any street cleared in winter, or should it be imposed on residents?

The Starnberg city council voted - and thus rejected both.

Starnberg

– there are things that are difficult to understand.

This week, the Starnberg city council dealt with the obligation to clear and spread on the so-called restricted public paths, it also made two decisions, just: There is no decision.

Because both proposals - the city takes over the winter service, the residents take over the winter service - were rejected.

At least one councilor must have voted one way or the other, for whatever reason.

As reported, the topic is about 45 sidewalks in the city area that do not border on lanes.

Last week, the main and finance committee spoke out in favor of the fact that the residents should vacate there in the future.

The city council simply did not want to follow this recommendation.

Instead, he spent almost an hour discussing the pros and cons of the various variants.

Mayor Patrick Janik spoke out clearly in favor of transferring the task to the residents, as has always been the case with the dependent sidewalks – i.e. those that border on a street.

As an example, he named a path that leads from Josef-Fischhaber-Strasse to Giselastrasse.

He didn't understand why this restricted public path should be cleared by the city, while the residents are responsible for an equally steep path a little further along the road.

High costs or high effort

Eva Pfister (BMS) in particular spoke out against this.

It does make "a huge difference whether I have to clear a path on a road or a steep stairway," she said, and also gave examples.

In addition, the financial effect is low, but the administrative effort is high, since the city is adjacent to many restricted public roads.

The administration had given the costs for the winter service on the paths in the past season as 51,000 euros for external companies and 10,000 euros for services from the depot.

When it comes to saving costs, it makes more sense not to clear some paths in winter and to block them instead, says Pfister.

Your application, the city takes over the winter service, fell through with 13:15 votes.

The administration's suggestion to involve the residents of the paths was also rejected with a stalemate of 14:14.

Janik reacted dryly: "Then we look forward to having the point voted on next time."