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In 2002 I with the group of the representatives
of St. Petersburg Municipalities visited the Municipalities
and Organizations in Lahti, Vantaa (in Finland)
and Horsens, Copenhagen (in Denmark).
The intentions of my visit were acquaintance with
the structures of municipal authorities, their
functions and tasks, acquaintance with the functioning
of the municipal administration, their interactions
with inhabitants. I wanted to learn how they use
Internet in order to interact their inhabitants.
I wanted to study the activities of different
organizations established by municipalities and
working to municipalities' interests and with
closed contact with them. During the visits I
supposed to discuss the possibilities of collaboration
between Municipalities of Lahti, Vantaa, Horsens
and Municipality of District n.8 of St. Petersburg.
Finland
LAHTI
The first place, we visited in Finland, was Lahti
(97700 residents). It is nice and green city near
lake Vesijarvi. Its authorities pay a lot of attention
to environmental protection and to health protection
of their inhabitants.
They gave us the wide possibilities to learn its
work in this area. During our staying in City
of Lahti we met with the representative of city
administration Mr. Kari Porra who told us about
the city administration structure and about its
functioning. We were showed the practical examples
of environmental solutions in town planning.
Our group visited Technology Center Neopoli Ltd.
We were informed about this Center and its activities.
Neopoli was established in 1991 by the City of
Lahti with surrounding municipalities, the University
of Helsinki, Helsinki University of Technology,
Lahti Polytechnic and several private enterprises
and individuals. Since 1995 Neopoli has been acting
as an Environmental Technology Center and it works
in closed co-operation with Municipality of Lahti.
It has some projects with local authorities of
the North-West Region of Russia..
We went by small ship on nice excursion to the
Enonsaari Island.
The visit in the Recycling Center Patina was interesting.
There are multifaceted recycle and educational
activities in Patina.
In the evenings I had free time for sightseeing.
In my photo report you can see beautiful views
of Lahti, its sights and places to visit: Sport
Center, Sibelius Hall, Lanu Sculpture Park, Musical
Fountain.
Photo
album "Lahti" 
VANTAA
The 21st of August our group had a trip in the
City of Vantaa. We visited the Environmental Business
Center LEIJA where we met with Mr. Stefan Skog,
Head of Environmental Protection of the City of
Vantaa, with Mr. Harry Helmisaari, Representative
of the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Mr.
Lauri Hietaniemi and Mrs. Paivi Saarnia from Green
Net Finland.
Mr. Stefan Skog told us about Municipality of
Vantaa activities in the city planning. In his
speech he paid a special attention to interaction
administration with inhabitants in development
of new projects. He gave as an example River Vantaa
recreation - project.
Mr. Harry Helmisaari told us about his organization
and about their practice in interaction with Municipality
of Vantaa.
After lunch we had excursion "Purification
of polluted soils and development of the landscape
in old industrial areas in the city".
During this visit I propose Municipality of Vantaa
and organization Green Net of Finland the further
collaboration on behalf of Municipality of District
n.8.
On this point our visit in Finland was over.
Photo
album "Vantaa"
At the 22nd of August our group flew to Copenhagen.
But I return in Finland in ten days. On my way
back to home in Russia I had several hours to
visit Helsinki. I spent this time on excursion.
I had a sightseeing tour around Helsinki by bus
of "Open Top Tours". I liked it very
much. It is very nice city with friendly people.
;
Photo
album "Helsinki"
Our study visit in Finland was arranged very well.
I would like to thank Municipalities of Lahti
and Vantaa, Technology Center Neopoly and Green
Net Finland for their attention, care and their
time.
Especially I am grateful to Mr. Reima Kauhanen and
Mrs. Paiva Saarnia.
Denmark
HORSENS
The City of Horsens is located on the east coast
of Jutland (56500 residents), Denmark, at the
end of a long inlet among rich farmland in a hilly
countryside. Horsens is a typical Danish industrial
city dominated by the electronic and graphic industry.
"Health, well-being and better living conditions
shall go hand in hand with industrial growth,
with full consideration for nature and the environment".
That is the general objective of the municipal
health policy action plan.
In May 1998 the City of Horsens was designated
as a Collaborating Centre on the basis of an active
involvement in the WHO Healthy Cities Network
since its very start in 1987. The city has continued
to strengthen its activities in the field of health
promotion and urban health ever since.
In Horsens we had a large and interesting programme.
The 23rd of August we visited the Horsens' Library
- a real educational centre. At the library everyone,
who has an address in Denmark, can borrow and
use books, music-CD's, video, CD-ROM, dvd-films,
magazines, newspapers, use the Internet (they
have 6 computers for this aim) etc. The library
also has a wide selection of audio books and language
courses on tape. The use of the library is free.
The readers can renew the material by phone, via
the website if they have a pincode, or at the
library. At the library you can find books in
many languages. If you can access Internet, Horsens
Library also recommends a visit to the Danish
Library Portal, where you can order books, periodicals,
music, articles etc. from all Public and Research
libraries in Denmark for collection at Horsens
Library.
The part of the programme that was concerned the
examples of interactions the Municipality with
inhabitants and the involvement of inhabitants
in processes of making decisions and development
of ideas was very interesting. From this point
of view I want to mention the meeting and excursion
with Sven Jensen, the municipal consultant on
community participation, "Neighbourhood planning
- a practical example of city renewal with community
participation". He told us about the neighbourhood
inhabitants' participation in the development
ideas of reconstruction and renewal of buildings,
streets and recreation areas. We strolled around
this neighbourhood and saw what was made and what
will be made.
When we visited Municipal Tax Department we received
the overall information about the Danish tax system
and we were shown how the taxpayers could use
the Internet to interact with Tax Department.
On Saturday I had free time and used it to visit
Aarhus, the second town in Denmark.
Photo
album "Horsens"
Photo
album "Arhus"
COPENHAGEN
In Copenhagen we visited the Association of Danish
Municipalities - Local Government in Denmark (LGDK)
and met Helle Willumsen who inform us about the
public political/administrative system in Denmark
and gave us the book "Local Government that
was prepared by Danish specialists. It contains
a lot of information about legal, organization
and finance principles of local government in
Denmark. The problem of interaction the state
and local authorities is specially considered.
Photo
album "Copenhagen"
(I use for this article
some material from my report for the Nordic Council
of Ministers)
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