The institute was left by experts preparing a new urban plan for Prague

Prague - Architects and experts who were preparing the Metropolitan Plan have left the Prague Institute of Planning and Development (IPR). The staff reacted to the Tuesday dismissal of IPR director Petr Hlaváček. Members of the team told ČTK. Thus, there is currently no one to prepare the Metropolitan Plan. Deputy Mayor Petra Kolínská (SZ/Trojkoalice) justified Hlaváček's dismissal by the delay in preparing the Metropolitan Plan. ČTK is seeking a statement from the Prague leadership.

The team that was preparing the Metropolitan Plan had 15 members. 13 experts submitted their resignations. Now only the assistant and one member remain in the group.

"We went to work for a public institution because we believed that we could help implement an innovative approach to urban planning. The dismissal of Petr Hlaváček was the last and decisive signal in a long series that the political leadership of the city does not care about this," said architect Marie Smetana, who focused on parks and landscape in the Metropolitan Plan office.

According to her, experts have long encountered attempts from the Prague leadership to interfere purposefully in the preparation of the plan. "Which led to the disruption of the conditions for professional and independent work," she stated.

In addition to experts, the team leader and architect Roman Koucký also submitted his resignation. He was precisely the one the city wanted to dismiss, which Hlaváček refused. Kolínská stated that Hlaváček linked his position with Koucký's, which is also why she had to dismiss him.

It is unclear who will work on the Metropolitan Plan. Similarly, it is not yet clear how IPR will proceed; it will depend on an agreement with Kolínská and the city leadership.

The departure of experts is, according to former mayor Tomáš Hudeček (independent), under whose tenure IPR was established, an irreparable mistake of the city leadership. "Getting rid of experts is a terrible and irreparable mistake. Even worse is that now a manager is supposedly going to sit there. I feel a certain disdain for this Americanism. Didn't the associate dean of CTU lead a team of people? Manager, managerial failure, leadership, let them go somewhere with that (the Prague leadership)," Hudeček told ČTK.

The Tuesday decision of the council was criticized not only by opposition councilors but also by several experts, including architects Martin Rajniš and Jakub Cigler.

IPR was established from the City Development Department during the tenure of Mayor Tomáš Hudeček (independent, then TOP 09). The Institute's task is, among other things, to prepare a new land use plan and to plan the city's development. Its annual budget is around 300 million koruna.