Poland Conference

Notes from 2nd Major Conference 17th November, Ùeba, Poland Sustaining Small Expanding Towns Venue: hotel Ùeba in Ùeba Conference moderators: Ms. Marta Cheùkowska – deputy mayor of Ùeba Mr. Tomasz Lesner – Regional Coordinator of SusSET project   Welcome to Ùeba and introduction to 2nd Major SusSET conference on small town development and growth. Marta Cheùkowska and Tomasz Lesner – conference moderators   Introduction of programme of the conference, welcome to all guests.   Opening of the SusSET 2nd Major Conference Halina Kliñska – Mayor of Ùeba   Warm welcome to all participants of 2nd Major conference in Ùeba, Poland. In particular, welcome to those who visit Ùeba and/or Poland for their first time – more than 50 guests from abroad, from nine small towns of three foreign countries: Greece, Scotland and Sweden. Also welcome and short introduction of our most honourable guests: Dr Nick Brown – project leader, parliamentary politician - Mr. Kazimierz Kleina and Mr. Jan Szymañski – deputy director of Regional Programmes Department in the Pomeranian Region, where Ùeba, Læbork and Puck are located.   SusSET goals and achievements: Introduction to the project Dr Nick Brown – Project leader   Introduction to the project to all those who have contact with the project for the first time. The project’s objective is to raise agenda for small towns on national and international level, to learn from each other’s experiences and expertise, to jointly develop innovative solutions concerning small town development or/and strategic tools to support that. The output should be a set of guidelines to follow for other small towns who wish to develop in the EU area. Achievements: first conference in Sweden was fruitful with establishing and defining seven investigative areas, learning about Swedish perspective on small town’s strategy and other key issues. Some of the acti First contact between towns had been made and some ideas about joint projects started to grow. Our other achievements aimed to promote the project are: website being currently finished, leaflet about the project is also at the very end of processing. Reports from Swedish conference took place in local/regional newspapers of towns participating in SusSET.           Policy towards sustainable development of small and medium-sized towns Kazimierz Kleina – Member of Polish Parliament   General presentation of Polish policy documents, such as National Development Plan 2004- 2006 or Strategy of Development of Pomeranian Region 2005 –2020. Those two documents are basis for development of the whole region and particular towns. It is also obligatory for small towns to elaborate a Local Development Plan and Multi-annual Plan of Investments (for each town). Also, various national programmes have been introduced to support the development of towns and cities in five most distinctive areas: competitiveness of industry and services, Human Resources development, investments/sustainable development/spatial cohesion, structural transformation of agriculture and fishery, preventing of some regions’ marginalization. Nevertheless, there is no special attention paid to small towns. Practice shows, that small towns have weaker chance for financial support than bigger ones. However, they should not cease to try to gain financial resources from national funds or European funds distributed through national structure. The recent success of Ùeba – gaining funds for ring road construction - is a good example, that it pays off.   The opportunities of Polish small and medium-sized towns after Poland’s accession to European Union. Jan Szymañski – deputy director of Regional Programmes Department in the Pomeranian Region.   A closer look at the Strategy of Development of Pomeranian Region. Thorough presentation of three main priorities, which are: competitiveness, cohesion and accessibility, and the goals that they include. Presentation of several measures and tools which can be utilised by small towns to support their development, and these are: -         INTERREG IIIA -         European Economic Area -         Norwegian Financial Mechanism -         Operational programme: Protection of Cultural Heritage -         Other international/national programmes   See attached file: “korzysci poakcesyjne – 17.11.2005.pps” (Polish version only)   Presentation of towns: Local governments’ experiences contributing to the development of small towns. Læbork – Mr. Witold Namyúlak – mayor of Læbork   Læbork is a town of about 37.000 inhabitants situated on a 18 km2 area. It’s located by the international route connecting two big Polish cities: Gdañsk and Szczecin. There is only 30km from Læbork to the coastal tourist resort – Ùeba. Læbork’s favourable location makes it one of the most attractive medium sized towns not only for its inhabitants but also for investors and  tourists. This medieval town, with great cultural heritage, could be an ideal base for tourists to explore the values of the region. Læbork is now searching for a way to attract more tourists and investments – hence in main interest in this project is the “Marketing & Promotion” theme.   See attached files:      “Lebork Profile EN.doc”; “WELCOME TO LÆBORK.doc” Visit:                            www.lebork.pl   Puck – Ms. Jolanta Podhajska  – deputy mayor of Puck   Puck, a 12000 inhabitants town with rich cultural & historical background. It is a cultural centre, and service provider for its region. Also it is a great place to spend summer holiday. Puck offers a lot to tourists who like to spend their time actively – there is a training centre for sailors, windsurfing school and many equipment rentals. Puck is also a place of water sports competition, even at European level. To improve the attractiveness of town, Puck would mostly like to learn about other town’s ideas, experiences and achievements in Town Planning, Cultural Heritage Preservation and also in Tourism. It’s also vital for Puck to know how some of partner towns take advantage of proximity to cities.   See attached file:       “Prezentacja SusSET Puck English.pps”’; “Puck Profile EN.doc” Visit:                            www.miasto.puck.pl   Ùeba – Ms. Marta Cheùkowska – deputy mayor of Ùeba   Ùeba is a coastal town, a tourist resort, famous in Poland for it’s unique natural heritage – the largest moving sand dunes in Europe. 4.000 inhabitants of Ùeba mostly live off tourism and the sea. Ùeba is a great place for small entrepreneurship, which is flourishing there. Ùeba has recently won a grant from EU, for building a ring road. But Ùeba is willing to prolong the tourist season, and increase positive image of the town by improving its appearance. This is why Ùeba is most interested in themes of Tourism and Town Planning/Cultural Heritage.   See attached file:       “Ùeba Profile EN.doc” Visit:                            www.leba.pl Download Leba’s presentation in Polish: http://www.leba.home.pl/pub/  (file: ‘susset.ppt’ right click, save source as… - 33 MB file in Polish, many pictures)   Open discussion: Do the differences between coastal towns, local service centre towns and towns located in proximity to cities predetermine three distinguishable types of strategies?                            Halina Kliñska – Mayor of Ùeba                    Witold Namyúlak – Mayor of Læbork                    Adam Zaýembùowski – Mayor of Puck                    Mieczysùaw Struk - Vice Marshal of The Pomerania District                    Tomasz Lesner – moderator   Discussion started with short presentation of towns’ characteristics given by mayors. After that, the moderator was inquiring the mayors about several features of their towns, their meaning and impact on town’s strategy. The towns differ from each other due to their location, however the differences are not as significant as was expected. Only a minor part of the strategic solutions are location – specific. The question stated in the title of this part of the conference, remains unanswered until future discussions, partly due lack of time during Ùeba conference.   See attached file: “Panel_SusSET_Leba05.doc”   Regional Coordinators’ meeting, other attendees go for a guided walk around Ùeba   See attached file: “RCmin.Nov05.doc”   Parallel sessions in key-topic workgroups Lead Town             Topic   Åmål   Tourism and Town Identity, Sense of Belonging Pyrgos Developing whole town strategy Stonehaven Long term planning Ellon Engagement / Dialogue / Youth Ùeba Planning / Conservation / Heritage – Identity Strömstad Partnership and Town Management Læbork Marketing and Promotion   See attached protocols from the workshop sessions   Presentation of parallel sessions’ outputs Topic session leaders   Theme 1: tourism/marketing & promotion/town identity/sense of belonging – All twelve towns have decided to participate in this theme, which makes it most popular. All participant towns will submit (by end of Dec 05) a report on their planned tourist activities/events; identification of strengths and weaknesses of tourism in their town etc. It will be done by filling a template form prepared by lead-town: Åmål.   Theme 2: whole town strategy/long term planning – Result of a merger between previous themes 2 & 3. Ten towns have decided to participate in this theme (excluding Åmål & Strömstad). All towns are bound to assess relevant targets and identify good practices by (May 06)   Theme 3: Engagement/dialogue/youth – Town participation yet to be finally confirmed, all participating towns agree to sent their representatives (2 young people + 1 leader per town) to Greece (May 06), where they will discuss ideas for toolkit and test these ideas during the conference.   Theme 4: Planning/conservation/heritage – Nine towns (+Stonehaven at stages I & II) have decided to participate in this theme. They have agreed to the proposed general timetable with minor remarks. By the end of Jan 06 they should produce a report containing background research + evaluation of town experiences, knowledge, needs, possibilities within this theme.\   Theme 5: Partnership & town management – Town participation yet to be finally confirmed, all participating towns decided to gather and analyse 5 examples of best practice, create a tool kit (by March/April 06) and have another workshop, probably before Greek conference. They also want to define/improve partnership by Autumn 06, and form international partnerships.   Theme 6: Marketing & promotion – talking about promotional activities, ended up with talking about tourism, therefore it was decided to combine these two investigative themes. After this conference, theme 6 was merged with theme 1.   Closure and final words - Dr Nick Brown – Project leader   Next steps in SusSET: ·        Lead towns to produce 1 page summary by 27th November ·        Each town seek mandate from locality ·        Pursue to deliver work on time ·        Confirm understanding & acceptance by January ·        Summaries will be circulated to all towns after meeting with the Secretariat at the end of November   Thank you all for a successful cooperation and hope to see you all in Greece… Read Report  on Polish Conference from Stonehaven Delegate.