Přerov City Hall will begin the demolition of the devastated Škodova Street

photo: Palickap via Wikimedia Commons

Přerov - This week, the Přerov Town Hall will begin the long-planned demolition of the devastated area of Škodova Street near the main train station, which was bought back into its ownership last year after a failed attempt by a private investor to restore this part of the city. A illegal waste dump will be removed and then the demolition of four houses that remained on the street, previously inhabited by Romani families, will follow. The municipal office is likely to offer the cleared site to investors.

The evacuation crew will enter this abandoned part of Přerov for the first time on Wednesday. "First, the dump created by the demolition of two residential buildings will be removed. The area of about 730 square meters will be cleared of invasive vegetation and all the debris that has accumulated over the years since the neighborhood was depopulated," said Eva Kousalová from the property department of the Přerov municipality to ČTK today. She estimated that up to 2,000 cubic meters of waste would be removed.

The town hall will pay 670,000 crowns for the clearance of Škodova Street, which is expected to be completed in February. The demolition of the remaining houses will then follow. "There are still four buildings with identification numbers in the area, for whose demolition we will be applying for a subsidy from the Ministry of Regional Development’s program to support the demolition of buildings in socially excluded areas," said Ivana Pinkasová from the management and investment department of the municipality. The city has already prepared project documentation for the removal of the houses.

Last year, the town hall bought Škodova Street back into its ownership. It paid 3.3 million crowns for the buildings and land. This is more than double the price at which the city sold the area to a private investor nine years ago. His plans to build new residential buildings in the area inhabited by Romani families ultimately ended in failure. Ruins were left by the station, and the company went bankrupt.

"Once the neighborhood has been completely leveled, it will most likely be offered to an investor. It will be a significant location, as a bypass through the town is set to begin construction in 2018," noted the municipal spokesperson Lenka Chalupová.

The city has been waiting for the clearing of the devastated Škodova Street, which previously had 80 apartments with up to 500 socially weak tenants, for several years. "Originally, railway workers lived in the brick houses built just a short distance from the station; later, problematic people and non-payers began moving into the area. In the 1990s, Škodova Street was already referred to as a Romani ghetto," added Chalupová. The last families moved out of the apartments in Škodova Street in 2013. A year earlier, it was estimated that 50 to 100 Romani people lived there.