The right to dispose of the sea beaches is to be transferred to local governments – these are the assumptions of the bill, which is to be submitted as a legislative initiative of the Senate. Now the beaches at the seaside are in the hands of maritime offices, which is to limit the possibility of their development.
The bill was submitted as a legislative initiative of the Senate by a group of senators (mainly KO). It is even before the first reading. Its initiator, the head of the extraordinary Senate climate committee, Stanisław Gawłowski (non-attached) admits that currently beaches, i.e. the technical belt of the Polish coast, are managed by maritime offices.
– They are responsible only for the security of sea coast protection, but they do not deal with this area from the point of view of tourism development. The development of tourism in the coastal belt often depends on whether the sea beaches are properly developed, whether they are clean, whether there are lifeguards, and so on. Municipalities care about all of this, they are aware that thanks to the appropriate management of the beaches, they attract tourists, said Gawłowski.
Beaches for local governments – project assumptions
He pointed out that so far municipalities have not been able to manage beaches, unless, for example, they sign one-off agreements with maritime offices on this matter.
– The draft I wrote assumes that the communes, wherever they want, can apply to the maritime offices for the transfer of the beach. In such a situation, maritime offices will have to transfer to communes the right to use beaches for a period of at least 10 years, the senator noted.
Handing over the beaches to local governments – a Senate project
The State Treasury will remain the owner of the beaches, he added, although municipalities will be able to develop them and generate income from it. It will also be in the interest of the state treasury, because it will use the taxes paid, he pointed out.
– The project is important because it covers 500 kilometers of the sea coast – said Gawłowski.
The Senate has legislative initiative. Bills adopted by the Senate go to the Sejm and then fall under the normal legislative procedure.
Main photo source: Shutterstock