After an intensive debate: Peitinger municipal council buries plans for controversial Peitnach bridge

Created: 12/08/2022, 12:00 p.m

By: Christopher Peters

Residents made it clear last year that they do not want the bridge over the Peitnach.

She should be particularly pleased with the council's decision not to go ahead with the plans.

© Archive/hh

There has been a heated argument about it for almost a year, now it is clear: the bridge over the Peitnach between Peitnachstraße and Tannheimer Straße will not come.

On Tuesday, the municipal council decided not to pursue the plans any further.

Peiting – The meeting lasted quite a while, but the visitor chairs in the Schloßberghalle were still full before the last item on the agenda.

Those who stayed wanted to know how things would continue with the controversial Peitnach Bridge, which has been the subject of debate in the village for almost a year and has met with resistance, especially from residents.

The municipal council was not supposed to deal with the subject again until the new year, but the result of the mobility behavior analysis presented in the previous meeting had persuaded Mayor Peter Ostenrieder to rethink.

Before investing further money and human resources in determining construction costs, noise reports and environmental assessments, the committee should decide whether it wants to continue with the project.

What followed was an intense debate in which opponents and supporters exchanged blows.

There had already been a similarly controversial discussion in April, when it was decided with a wafer-thin majority of one vote to initially pursue the plans and examine the mobility behavior of the Bachfeld residents.

Critics see themselves confirmed by expert opinion results

The critics, in particular, saw themselves as confirmed by the report.

Only eight percent relief for Meierstraße, plus the clear will of the citizens of Bachfeld who do not want the bridge: "I don't need more facts," said Christian Lory (independent).

The traffic problem on Meierstraße was self-made by the priority changes decided in the center.

"We can't build that many bridges to reduce traffic there." Marion Gillinger (ÖDP) warned that the construction of the bridge costs resources and destroys nature.

Instead of building new roads, you have to get away from motorized private transport.

"The residents don't want the bridge either."

The CSU saw things very differently.

Norbert Merk advocated collecting more "numbers, data, facts" first, only then can you vote in a qualified manner.

The expressed will of the citizens is also limited to the living environment and does not automatically apply to the whole place, he pointed out.

But he is a municipal councilor for all Peitingers.

His parliamentary colleague Stephan Walter took the same line.

In order to be able to make an objective decision, it is essential to first collect all aspects, he emphasized.

BVP Council brings Council requests into play

BVP faction leader Franz Seidel also did not believe in burying the project at this point.

He even brought up a request for advice as soon as all the data were available.

"How long should we keep collecting numbers, data and facts?" Herbert Salzmann (SPD) saw little point in this.

They've been on the table for a long time, even if the quality of the latest report leaves a lot to be desired.

Instead of eight, it was more like four percent relief, the SPD parliamentary group leader calculated.

Salzmann also did not leave good hair on the proposal for a council request.

You only do that if the municipal council is too cowardly to implement its plans.

But Seidel protested against this.

Those who argue in this way are probably more afraid that the citizens could decide differently than they want to.

Feige, it was more like the three mayors before Ostenrieder who hadn't tackled the bridge issue, according to Merk.

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But Thomas Elste (Greens) didn't think much of extending the survey to the whole town, "just because the proponents don't think the result is great".

The fact that the bridge could eliminate up to 1,500 kilometers of car traffic per day, as determined in the report, is disproportionate to the construction costs, which run into the millions.

"That's marginal." In general, the costs: instead of spending even more money, it makes more sense to consider other measures to reduce traffic, the critics agreed.

The mayor continues to believe that the bridge makes sense

The mayor finally had the last word: he was very grateful for the discussion, his gut feeling had not deceived him, the mood was clear.

In terms of local planning, he still thinks the bridge makes sense and will vote for it, emphasized Ostenrieder.

It is not for nothing that it has always been an issue in the past five election campaigns.

He could also gain something from a Council request, "that is legitimate with a topic that has existed for 50 years".

But even the head of the town hall had long since made it clear that this would not happen.

The municipal council buried the bridge plans with a 13:9 vote.

You can find more current news from the region around Schongau at Merkur.de/Schongau.