Kladno

Kladno is one of the biggest industrial centres in the Czech Republic. It is the largest town in Central Bohemia Region, is known by its convenient location in the centre of the Czech Republic. The town’s area reaches 3,696 ha. With its population of almost 72,500 inhabitants and together with its suburban parts it forms more than a hundred-thousand populations.

One of the most important tasks of our city hall was to create local conditions for a restructuring and transformation of industry and trade in the city. This represented some essential steps necessary to be made to change the approach of the municipal authorities - Kladno City Council, Board of Representatives as well as relevant structural changes in each department of the Kladno Municipal Office, including personnel changes to increase specialization and quality of its employees.

Kladno has a strong labour and services bindings to Prague. A great deal of citizens commute daily to the Prague -in the last population census in 2001 more than 67 % from all commuting out of Kladno.

The city of Kladno has to reuse the remaining vast area of industrial, disused and polluted land now lying near the centre of the town. Using these areas, the city must define an urban redevelopment strategy to redesign and re-launch its future long-term economic role. The strategy should improve the coordination of the urban planning processes and integrate the wide and varied objectives of economic, social, environmental, cultural local policies.

Implementing this long-term strategy, the city has to improve the territorial governance ensuring the involvement of other public authorities (national, regional and other municipal authorities interested) and, on the other hand, the involvement of private actors. Nevertheless the city needs to promote the citizen participation during the preparation, implementation and review of the urban planning processes to create an integrated and shared strategy shaping the future of the city. The city should pass from the pragmatic approach used in tackling the industrial crisis to a new approach in managing urban transformation more interested in social cohesion, sustainability and better quality of life.