Decision made for the benefit of Budapest citizens

The city assembly on Wednesday decided in a unanimous vote to support the mayor’s proposal on submitting an amendment aimed at preventing the government plan to set up a base to store hazardous chemicals in southern Budapest.

Mayor Gergely Karácsony said the amendment proposal was aimed at preventing the Hungarian government and its Chinese partners from setting up a base in Soroksár for depositing dangerous chemical substances needed for European battery production there, and it initiates amendments to the capital’s settlement structure plan and settlement regulations for the affected areas of Soroksár.

Ferenc Bese, Soroksár’s independent mayor, said the establishment of a chemical waste site in the district needed to be prevented by any means necessary, but added that the amendment proposal had not been adequately prepared.

He questioned whether the report of the plan on where in Soroksár a chemicals depot would be set up was reliable, saying he had no heard of such a plan.

Bese said he did not support the idea of setting up a chemicals waste site in his district, adding however that the matter should be addressed when it became clear where such a site was planned to be set up. He said he had turned to the relevant minister over the matter, adding that the assembly should wait for the minister’s response.

Bese said he would vote for the amendment proposal if it did not hamper Soroksár’s development.