Trip may shape Westport policies

Trip may shape Westport policies

Anton McNulty

A DELEGATION of elected representatives and officials from Westport Town Council travelled to the historic German tourist towns of Baden-Baden and Heidelberg last week, where they studied the towns’ various policies on transportation, parking and the environment.
The delegation from Westport, led by its Cathaoirleach, Cllr Tereasa McGuire and Town Manager, Mr Peter Hynes, met with the Lord Mayor of Baden-Baden, Wolfgang Gerstner and his town officials, with whom they discussed the challenges which the town had to overcome. Baden-Baden, similar to Westport, is an Entente Florale town surrounded by eight hectares of protected forest.
The economy of Baden-Baden, which - like Westport - relies heavily on tourism, is located in the foothills of the Black Forest, close to the French border. The town has a population of 53,000 inhabitants and is famous for its Roman spa baths, which are renowned for their healing qualities.
Baden-Baden is located in an eight-kilometre long valley and once suffered from severe traffic congestion through the town’s centre. To counteract the problem, the Vice Mayor Kurt Liebenstein told the delegation that in the late eighties a 2,500-metre long tunnel was built for €90 million which diverted the traffic away from the town.
On Saturday, the delegation went to the university town of Heidelberg on the banks of the river Neckar. There are 140,000 people living in the town and its environs with the majority of its inhabitants working in the tourism industry. The pedestrianisation of the city centre allows people to walk along the historic part of the city as well as take in the vibrant shopping district.
Peter Hynes explained that they did not choose the two towns ‘out of the air’ and a number of weeks of preparation had gone in to organising the trip. He said that Westport was looking to the future in terms of planning and said if they wanted to be the best they had to visit the best.
“We did not pick Baden-Baden out of the air. It is an Entente Florale entrant and it is a place to visit to see how it is done well. Baden-Baden is a place we can learn from and Heidelberg is one of the best preserved town centres in Europe. They both attract millions of tourists and yet preserve the character of the centre,” said Mr Hynes.