Five villages in Emden start large -scale renovation projects!

Five villages in Emden start large -scale renovation projects!

In the next ten years, the villages of Petkum, Widdelswehr, Jarßum, Petkumer Münte and Hilmarsum can look forward to a comprehensive renovation. Together with the Working Group for Regional Structural and Environmental Research GmbH (ARSU), the city of Emden designed exciting plans that have now been presented. This initiative is part of the “Fiev Dörpen” village development program, which is funded by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Agriculture and the European Union. The goal? Strengthen rural regions and significantly improve the living environment outside of the cities. According to nwzonline.de, the city of Emden has a funding rate of 65%, while it is borne a third of the costs.

A total of 48 projects are concerned, which are intended to raise the quality of life of around 8,000 villagers with an estimated cost of over 17 million euros. These projects include the renovation of town houses, the creation of new places, automatic sales machines for farmers as well as leisure activities such as water sports and swimming lakes. The planned youth field between Widdelswehr and Jarßum, which is to be equipped with a shelter, table tennis slabs, a mountain bike path and a climbing wall, is particularly exciting. In addition, the renovation of the Evangelical Reformed Church in Jarßum is being planned, whereby costs of at least 500,000 euros are expected.

civic wishes and challenges

The citizens of the villages have concrete ideas about what should be improved. Requests for an upgrading of the playgrounds, traffic calming on Landesstraße 2 and restrictions for truck are at the top of the list. City planner David Malzahn has emphasized that it is often unclear which projects will ultimately be realizable. Wilke Held from the CDU, on the other hand, underlines the urgency to quickly get the projects for young people on the way. The planning is now designed for four weeks before the concrete implementation is tackled.

Such initiatives are not only relevant in Emden. The village development program is a central funding instrument in the rural areas of Lower Saxony. As the Lower Saxony Ministry of Agriculture have recently been added to twelve new village regions that are included in an extensive program for the integrated rural development participate. A total of 193 village regions with 798 villages now take part, which underlines the importance of such projects. In the current funding period from 2023 to 2027, 220 million euros are available.

rural development in focus

The Federal Government has set itself the goal of strengthening rural regions as independent living and economic areas. The use of various funding instruments, including from the common agricultural policy (GAP), is of great importance (Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture). The adjustments of the GAP in particular have meant that rural areas are better promoted. The broadband expansion in the country remains a major challenge, but here too the goal is clear: by 2030 a nationwide supply of gigabit networks.