No more parking spaces in tourist hotspot

A plan to add 50 new parking places in the popular tourist village of Saksun is now on the verge of being axed.

Local council Sunda Municipality had bought the land right above the church from the local farmers with the aim of building new parking spaces and toilet facilities to improve conditions for tourists and locals.

But on Monday, mayor Heðin Zachariassen received a letter of protest signed by all the Saksun residents, along with the two local farmers, pleading for the project to be stopped.

Plan would “disfigure the village”

“Having seen the details of the planning papers, we do not want such a large parking space and a new building. That would disfigure our village,” says local resident Sonja Dalsgaard Nolsøe.

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The mayor says he thought he was acting in accordance with the wishes of Saksun residents, but he now realises that there has been a big misunderstanding between the local council and the residents.

“As the mayor I am now obviously not going to push through a plan in a village where all the residents have signed a protest letter asking for the project to be stopped.” 

Not the right solution

The locals say that expanded parking facilities do not solve the traffic problems in the village, arguing that it would be wiser to improve the road in and around the village before starting to build new parking spaces.

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“The road to and from Saksun is administered by [national road authority] Landsverk, so Sunda Municipality does not have the authority to do anything about that,” says the mayor. 

“But as a local council we have been planning in accordance with what we believed was our duty.”

Larger than expected

The villagers were overwhelmed when they heard the details of the plan, which consists of 50 new parking spaces, a new building with public toilets and a public space with tables and other facilities.

“We initially imagined something along the lines of a reception house or a café in one of the existing buildings in the village,” says resident Sonja Dalsgaard Nolsøe. 

As the project now looks unlikely to go ahead, the mayor says the local council will probably use an opt-out clause in the agreement with the local farmers, which annuls the sale of the land.

Translated by prosa.fo