The use of the municipal bathing area in Niederpöcking will cost something in the future. Only residents have access; they have to pay 80 euros.
Niederpöcking
– The residents of the Niederpöcking district of Pöcking enjoy a privilege. You alone are allowed to use a bathing area on Ferdinand-von-Miller-Straße - and have done so for decades and free of charge. The bathing area also came up at the local council's meeting on budget consolidation last summer. Because it causes considerable costs to the community.
The 795 euros annual rent paid to the castle administration (the jetty and bank strip are the property of the Free State) is only the smallest part. Maintenance costs and the effort for repairs, including rent, add up to an average of 16,000 euros per year, Mayor Rainer Schnitzler calculated on Tuesday evening in the main and finance committee. The property management has suggested setting a usage fee for the bathing area. In order to offset the ongoing costs, each user would have to be charged 66.66 euros per year. This amount is calculated from the number of Niederpöckingen residents who had a transponder for the bathing area's electronic locking system issued against a deposit - currently 240 people.
After his presentation, the mayor could hardly count the hands that shot up to indicate requests to speak. It was agreed that the proposed usage fee was set far too low, especially since it did not even include sales tax. Christian Fries (Greens) said that the use of the bathing area should be worth 100 euros to the people of Niederpöckingen. Felix Erhard and Kerstin Treptow (both PWG) were in the same vein. Treptow pointed out that if a usage fee were introduced, transponders would be returned from families in which several of these devices were present.
Anke Klostermeier (PWG) thought she could remember hearing about a contractual assurance of the privilege to the Niederpöckingen people. In any case, the community's costs would have to be covered. Managing director Sven Neumann denied the existence of a written document about the use of the bathing area: “We searched everything in the town hall and found nothing.” Dr. Florian Hönicke (Greens) suggested looking in the land register. Furthermore, he was of the opinion that the site should be available to all Pöckingen residents as a municipal facility.
The mayor warned against this. The bathing area has no infrastructure. There are no sanitary facilities there. There is also a lack of parking spaces on Ferdinand-von-Miller-Straße. The area is not designed for a larger rush. In fact, the rush on sunny bathing days is enormous. Families with children and their families make a pilgrimage to the bathing area in droves - most on foot, others by bike.
Since the installation of the electronic locking system, usage can be better controlled, explained manager Neumann when asked by our newspaper. The transponders are personalized. When access was still regulated by issuing keys, unwanted third-party use often occurred: “We had many complaints that the occupants of vehicles with Munich license plates visited the bathing area.” The main and finance committee unanimously recommended to the local council that to introduce a usage fee. It should initially be set at 80 euros annually.