Planning the Future

Well, some of the future for our town anyway. Because I sit on the planning committee I was given a tour of the town in the spring and shown the thinking behind the plans for the future of cars, busses, cyclists and pedestrians in Härnösand.
It was really interesting and Jan had the idea of asking the town engineers if they could do a similar tour for our Left Party members and friends. They were very happy to do so, hence today's picture from the square, on a damp misty evening.
By coincidence, as soon as the tour was over the people leading it and myself had to rush off for a meeting of the planning committee to agree the budget for 2021. Normally this would have been completed quite a while ago, but like so much else, Covid-19 made the early stages of planning difficult, and just when everything was ready, central government gave all the councils extra funds to help counteract the worst financial and social costs of the pandemic, so it was back to the drawing board. But now the budget is passed and the planning of the new waterside area, the new bridge, the new cycle paths, the street lighting, solar park, roundabouts, and much else can continue.
We are in the fortunate position that many of the decisions we take have long-term consequences so we try, and usually succeed, in producing ideas acceptable to all parties. This means if the next election produces a different result most, if not all, of our projects will carry on because both right and left are agreed on the benefits. This may sound a bit idyllic but town planning is relatively non-political. Other committees do not have it so easy!