Utrera City Council Secures 2.4 Million Euro European Fund for Vistalegre Park Construction

UTRERA (SEVILLE), 3 (EUROPA PRESS)

The City Council of Utrera (Seville) has informed this Wednesday of the collection of more than 2.4 million euros of European funds for the construction of the Vistalegre Park. This subsidy will be allocated to four projects related to the Vistalegre park: the renaturation of the Calzas Anchas stream bed, the fertilization of the land, the revegetation of the surroundings of Vistalegre and the stream and, finally, the adaptation of spaces for the development of the fauna.

This has been detailed by the Utrera City Council in a press release this Wednesday in which it explains that these European funds come from a “highly competitive call and in which Utrera has benefited.” The call, aimed at the renaturation and resilience of Spanish cities, depends on the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge through its Biodiversity Foundation.

The Vistalegre peri-urban park is currently completing its first phase, which will allow 10% of the site to be enjoyed. This subsidy obtained by the Utrera City Council will allow the subsidy to undertake the construction of the park to be “insured”. The four projects that are going to be financed with this grant have a cost of 2,902,387.52 euros, of which the Utrera City Council has to contribute 459,099.35 euros.

The call requested by the Utrera City Council uses arguments such as that “in 2009, a major work was carried out to divert the channel by building a concrete channel, turning it into an artificial channel with no environmental value. These characteristics do not allow the presence of proper vegetation or that the ecological and landscape functions typical of a natural stream take place”.

Along these lines, the Consistory continues, “the stream runs through an inert, rectilinear concrete channel, on an impermeable structure, with harsh landscape characteristics and lacking the potential to allow the development of the fluvial ecosystem.” Thus, “these serious hard spaces in the heart of a new green zone in Utrera will be solved with this intervention.”

In this way, the first project is the renaturation of the channel of the Calzas Anchas stream, which includes the demolition of the concrete box and the formation of a natural channel. The second project financed is the fertilization of the land and organic amendment of the Vistalegre environment. The action will mainly consist of raking the land to loosen it and aerate it, and incorporating the organic amendment of animal and vegetable origin in the Vistalegre Park at a minimum distance of 50 meters from the Calzas Anchas channel in order to avoid environmental effects due to the runoff of nitrates contributed.

The third intervention that will receive financing from European funds is the revegetation of the surroundings of Vistalegre and the Vistalegre stream. Mainly, it is the revegetation with riparian species in the lower areas of the channel, with Mediterranean species in the furthest away, in linear plantations on paths and paths and with bushes on the slopes. In total, a plantation of around 10,000 plants is planned.

In addition, this intervention includes the planting of 650 trees and 1,896 shrubs, considering the following species: holm oak, hackberry, wild olive, carob, white poplar, black poplar, ash, walnut, cork oak, piruétano and stone pine. Finally, an adaptation of spaces for the promotion of fauna is proposed, which aims to increase the presence of faunal biodiversity from the generation of naturalized solutions that promote the refuge and shelter mission of the environment, both for permanent and migratory species. avoiding the incorporation of artificial elements.