Building Healthy Communities: Focus on the Lecce Local Support Group

For the city of Lecce, the BHC project is a tool to accelerate the implementation of a new strategic development for the city and its territory. The Lecce Local Support Group was created in March-April 2009, bringing together the expertise of more than 20 professionals including architects, engineers, ecologists, medical doctors, lawyers and others. Many of the Local Support Group members are from the public sector ranging from the smallest municipality to the Lecce Province and to the Apulia region, as well as representatives from the University of Salento, the Italian Research Councils (CNR), the Regional Protection Agency (ARPA)etc. The group has held regular meetings which led to the formulation of the Local Action Plan.

The Lecce Local Action Plan is tailored to the city context. Lecce is a city with 100,000 inhabitants, with an important historical centre and a large neighbourhood area. Among the biggest problems of the city are the lack of green areas, the absence of the concept of public space and the worrying decrease in civic sense among citizens. To counteract these negative trends, the core of the Lecce Local Action Plan comprises targeted actions for urban and sub-urban regeneration focused on the underground relocation of aerial high tension and data transmission cables. This action will be concentrated in two main areas: the historical centre, where some interventions have been already made, and the neighbourhood called “Zone 45”. The results will be the reduction of electromagnetic pollution, improvement of the city appearance, and increased use of public spaces.

Once the Local Action Plan was formulated, it was agreed that the work would be carried forward by a small group of experts. This expert group includes around 10 people from the Municipality of Lecce and the Department of Planning, environmental experts from the University and CNR as well as some external experts and representative of the Apulia Managing Authority. The expert group's work includes the identification of indicators as well as communications with the local population about the importance of working at a European level and on the implementation of the various stages of the project.

The group is giving a high priority to identifying relevant indicators. The Lecce Local Support Group made a distinction between physical/environmental indicators (e.g. measurement of air pollution before and after the intervention, square meters of soil newly available, square meters of green space available to citizens), social indicators (e.g. number of people who will move to the regenerated areas, number of inhabitants who will directly benefit from the project), and economic indicators (e.g. new commercial activities).

For the future, the Local Support Group intends to develop new interventions and strategies to improve the connection between local authorities and citizens. The overall goal for the Municipality is the creation of the basis for future city planning and realisation of new strategic environmental interventions through the implementation of the methodology, based on health indicators, developed within the URBACT BHC project.


Read more:

• BHC – URBACT website
• Download newsletter06.pdf (1.46 MB) - September 2010 - URBACT website