Despite being the largest public park in Budapest,  Népliget has received little attention in recent decades, leading to unwanted processes springing up in the area – writes budapest.hu. The Budapest City Council has begun working on a strategy to renovate Népliget and revitalise its green areas. The strategy is essentially a vision that sets out short-, medium- and long-term development and maintenance tasks, and prepares a pipeline for more detailed planning - claims the announcement on the capital's website.

A top view of Népliget (Source: kozossegitervezes.hu/nepliget)

The Budapest City Council has published a questionnaire at www.kozossegitervezes.hu/nepliget to gauge the requests and opinions of park users. Those interested can answer 22 questions in the survey. Budapest.hu also notes that the questionnaire was created in cooperation between the Budapest City Council, the 10th District Local Council, Budapest Urban Planning Ltd., several local NGOs, and also contains comments from the government.

The survey is open until 31 December 2020, and respondents can detail their current usage of the park, its values, and problems, and can comment on the plans and ideas for development. Those taking part in the joint planning process may also express their thoughts on the renovation of the Planetarium, the utilization of the former Jurta Theater building and the Water Tower.

The trees of the park were originally valuable and varied, however, by the present day, one-third of the park has been overrun by unwanted invasive species (Photo: Viczián Zsófia/pestbuda.hu)

Those interested can also find information about the trees in the park in the questionnaire. This states that in recent decades, due to minimal investment in park maintenance, the originally precious and diverse tree stock is no longer healthy. Major storms have damaged a significant proportion of old trees. Various diseases also accelerate the ageing of the stock, and rotting trees are dangerous and may lead to accidents.

Furthermore, the spontaneous growth of aggressive alien tree species is widespread, resulting in a canopy closing above a significant area of the park. As a result, “the clearings of the former English-style park are being lost, the spacious open spaces gradually disappearing” – reads the questionnaire. One-third of the over 10,000 trees in the park are invasive and aggressive species not recommended for cultivation. This means that a comprehensive restructuring of the stock is a matter of urgency.

The results of the survey will be used to prepare the strategy in 2021 – writes the statement on the budapest.hu website. "Later in the process, the Budapest City Council will request the active participation of the people of Budapest, In detailed planning as well" – the statement reads.

Source: budapest.hu

Cover photo: One-third of the over 10,000 trees in Népliget are individuals of aggressive, invasive species (Photo: Viczián Zsófia/pestbuda.hu)