Recently, the press reported from the municipal commission a “Green and blue infrastructure plan, for the renaturalization and improvement of the environment. urban banks and other areas of the city with the possibility of subsidizing European funds to the tune of four million euros. With this action, the Town Hall seems to be engaging in an environmental strategy for the city, since this plan It should have an impact not only on the banks of the Tagus and the quality of its water but also on the sanitation and conditioning of all the canals. that flock there and all the existing green spaces, which should logically include the interstices between neighborhoods through greening formulas similar to those that the Madrid City Council promotes with the “Metropolitan Forest” and the Community of Madrid with the “Belt Green.” ‘.
Also the the regional president made statements in favor of the cultural landscapewhile announcing the rapid publication of a Landscape lawlike those of other communities, which is supposedly already advanced since its beginnings in 2018. This commitment to landscape and nature seemed firm when the Communities Council had been working for some time on a decree for the approval of the regional strategy Green infrastructure, connectivity and ecological restoration. All this, like the city council’s commissioning of a “Green and Blue Plan” for the city It couldn’t be more optimistic. advance environmental improvement and reduction of CO2 emissions due to their effects on the climate. And this enthusiasm for landscape and ecological restoration becomes even greater when it is verified that the main differential fact of our city compared to any other is not only its history and its monuments, but the quality of its landscapes and its environmental values. Nothing about our past and our future can be understood without referring to it.
It was satisfying to check one outsimilar harmony between the Town Hall and the regional government to promote renaturalization proposals which, on the other hand, are nothing other than a response to the mandates of the Green Deal, to the green infrastructure strategy that the EU has been promoting since 2013 and to its biodiversity strategy for 2031. Moreover , all this action of protection, restoration, creation and improvement of ecological infrastructures, particularly necessary in the Tagus Corridorfinds the State reference in the National Strategy for Green Infrastructure, Ecological Connectivity and Restoration of 2021 and in the Law on Climate Change and Energy Transition, also of 2021, with which it is planned to achieve the carbon neutrality by 2050 in accordance with the objectives of the Paris climate summit in 2015. We then see how the municipal council and the regional government seemed to want to apply European environmental policies which are mandatory compliance, this gave the impression that the administrations would know how to collaborate to recover the values of the river and its environment as a green and biodiversity corridor.
From this collaboration we can expect concrete actions still pending, such as declaration of Torno del Tajo as a natural monument or/and the declaration of Protected landscape for the entire Tagus valley when the river crosses Toledoby collecting the figures for nature protection contained in the Natural Heritage and Biodiversity Law of 2007. We were convinced that the Council of Communities would now not hesitate to include the section of the Tagus between Algodor and the Castrejón reservoir in the Natura 2000 network of the European Union, since both spaces have already been part of this European nature network for years, we just need to unite them. It is also an opportunity to overcome the contradiction between the left bank of the Tagus of Algodor, belonging to the Community of Madrid, which is included in this Natura 2000 network, and the right bank, of the Junta de Comunidades, which, surprisingly, is not . Undoubtedly, all this would be supported by the rich flora and fauna of Toledo’s environment, as documented by natural data from the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge.
However, all this horizon of hope to evolve towards a bluer and greener Toledo, is frustrated by the plans of the two administrations opposed to renaturalization of the Tagus river corridor and which was subject to uncertainties before the birth of the “Green and Blue Plan for Toledo”. In this situation, there are projects already denounced by the “Toledo, Society, Heritage and Culture” platform: the construction of housing on the archaeological site of Tenerías and the Arab Baths, the construction of a 5-story hotel in La Cavathe construction of a auditorium near the Parador tourism, and Cinema city in Polvorineswhich now presents itself as the flagship operation of urban planning promoted by the regional government in what is today public park where Toledo residents walk and play sportsjust 25 meters from the Ángel urbanization and 60 meters from a gas station.
The current PMOU of 1986 qualifies the soil of the Polvorines as protection for canals and urban sports facilitiesnothing to do with what the regional president and the municipality present to us as an area of exceptional environmental and landscape value, which is why it was doubly immortalized by Aureliano de Beruete in 1895. The project It is presented as a source of job creationas always you wish to justify any change in land use which results in a speculative operation, and in this case, in a privatization of public land stolen from the free enjoyment of citizens. what I knowand proposes is the conversion of nature into cementwaterproofing of the ground with all that this implies of negative environmental impact, repeating previous actions also promoted by the same regional government with clear effects on the landscape and the environment. As before, There is not the slightest opposition to the installation of the Cinema City in Toledoquite the contrary, but yes to its location in the biodiversity corridor that is the river, in one of the areas of the city with the greatest environmental and landscape value, and above all, when there are multiple other options for its location. It is difficult to reconcile this operation of artificialization of land which is a public park with European environmental directives, and even less to finance it with European funds in an area like this, and even less to try to justify it as an intervention aimed at improving the quality of the environment. . The Cinema City in Polvorines would mean more cement on the banks of the Tagus, adding to the construction of the Cava hotel, and upstream, the construction of housing in Tenerías and an auditorium in Cigarrales, from the place that served observation. to Joris Hoefnagel to represent the city in 1575 and 1595. In short, absolutely tThis is the opposite of what should be done in the Tagus corridor.
Can the inhabitants of Toledo imagine the new view on the banks of the Tagus while contemplating, from the surroundings of the Sefarad Institute, a 5-story hotel and a Cinema City in Polvorines, removed two green spaces of exceptional environmental and landscape quality who only need the attention of forests for their conservation and improvement? Will they be neighbors of the peaceful urbanization of Ángel, just 25 meters from the Ciudad de Cine, ready to endure acoustic disturbances and the movement of trucks, buses and vehicles of all types on a narrow road that is difficult to maneuver? Can we understand that the Cité du Cinéma, an industrial activity, represents an environmental improvement for Polvorines with an increase in construction heights and volumes and waterproofing of natural soils?
Indeed, if all the actions indicated to replace nature with cement are carried out on the banks of the Tagus, Our regional government’s avowed love for the landscape and the environment would be greatly called into question. And the same thing would happen with the city council. And on the other hand, it is also more than questionable whether Brussels is ready to accept the use of European funds for actions contrary to the EU Green Deal and its ecological restoration and carbon neutrality strategies by 2050, the real keys to its territorial policy. . We therefore hope that this article will contribute to raising awareness among those responsible for land management and conservation and improvement of the heritage, landscape and environmental values of our city to the risks to which they are unnecessarily subjected, and all alongside the river, which would also require the prior agreement of the Tajo Hydrographic Confederation. We therefore ask our authorities to stop urbanization projects. and the artificialization of soils near the river and that move the Ciudad del Cine project to another locationnot in an area of environmental value and a few meters from an already consolidated residential area with the inconvenience that this represents for people. And of course, the Town Hall is responsible for the conservation and sanitation work of the Polvorines Park which it does not carry out and which explains the current feeling of abandonment in the district.
