The Minister of Health, Enrique Ruiz Escudero, and the President of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, during a visit to the Niño Jesús Hospital.DP
A confidential technical report, commissioned by Unesco from a specialized NGO and accessed by EL PAÍS, calls for the more than 800 parking spaces in the four-story macro car park that a company will build at the Niño Jesús Hospital to “ drastically” Operate it for 40 years in exchange for funding for a new downtown building. The project, the document underlines, “threatens” the 2021 declaration of the capital’s lightscape as a World Heritage Site, which includes the Paseo del Prado and El Retiro, as the foreseeable increase in vehicles will encourage parking and will result in more pollution for the neighbours. As a result, the Ministry of Culture has asked the City Council and the Autonomous Community of Madrid to follow the recommendations of the non-binding report, which would mean changing a project already surrounded by controversy in 2020. Meanwhile, it has already done so with the demolition of the building beginning, marking the start of work on a hospital complex, which is also a Site of Cultural Interest (BIC).
“ICOMOS [entidad asesora de la Unesco] informs that the construction of the building and the underground car park will foreseeably endanger the space [declarado] World Heritage, especially when considering its architectural design and the additional traffic caused by the increase in available parking spaces,” reads the document signed in November 2022. “The project does not adequately respond to the urban needs and architectural quality expected of new buildings constructed in a World Heritage-listed area,” it said. “Furthermore, the current proposal may exacerbate the negative impacts of private motor vehicle use, particularly pollution of human origin,” she warns. “It would therefore be advisable to reconsider the urban planning and architectural concept as well as the design of the new building; and drastically reduce the parking lot under the new building [adaptando su tamaño a lo que se necesite solo para dar servicio a los trabajadores y usuarios del hospital]”, It adds. And it is underlined: “The reduction of traffic with private vehicles should be prioritized, not only in the area around Avenida Menéndez Pelayo, but also in the entire area that has been declared a World Heritage Site.”
Madrid City Council, headed by José Luis Martínez Almeida, confirms that it received the report in December and says it is “in constant contact with the community of Madrid and the Ministry of Culture to discuss this matter and the project to advance”. The regional administration, led by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who was the great promoter of the reform, announces that it will continue with the project. And the central government confirms that it has met with the other two parties concerned to study the report’s conclusions.
View of part of the light landscape. Victor Sainz
“The Ministry of Culture and Sport received the report commissioned by Unesco on December 1, 2022,” explains a spokesman for the department headed by Minister Miquel Iceta. “After reading the document, we held a meeting with the relevant parties (Community of Madrid and Madrid City Council) to notify them,” he adds. “The meeting took place in mid-December, before the Christmas holidays,” he specifies. “At this meeting, the document was explained to both parties and they were asked to comply with UNESCO’s recommendations.”
As a result, and “following the preliminary report on the draft by the NGO commissioned by Unesco, the Autonomous Community of Madrid will set up an all-party technical commission to study the report of this NGO,” explains a spokesman for the regional executive.
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Ayuso announced the project in May 2020. His commitment was to expand the hospital facilities with a new pavilion of more than 9,300 square meters for consultations, teaching and research and four floors of parking with 800 spaces for workers and users. In order to finance the 11 million euros of construction costs for the new building, a decision was made in favor of public-private cooperation: the company that operates the car park would, under a management concession, take over the management of the investment for a maximum of 40 years (a total of 24 million between the both infrastructures). The numbers speak for themselves: the feasibility study shows a business volume of 110 million euros for the rental of these 800 spaces throughout the concession. And the quarrel broke out.
Months later, a shattering report from a regional auditor revealed that the Ministry of Health’s contract included upward budget delays, a lack of mandatory permits and a violation of the Public Sector Contracts Act for inclusion on the Expert Committee, which tenders to senior staff at the Department of Health hospital. The reformulation of the documents failed to appease the criticism the project drew from neighbors, the Association of Mothers and Fathers from an adjacent school, the Association of Friends of the Buen Retiro Garden and the opposition.
“The 808 parking spaces are rotated, which means that 3,000 vehicles per day are easy,” says Javier de La Puente Vinuesa, chairman of the Association of Friends of the Buen Retiro Gardens. “This is outrageous, an urban aberration and polluting when UNESCO first demands not to increase pollution and visitor numbers,” he laments. “The reality is that the 800 places are not needed.”
“Both Retiro residents and the PSOE have already warned the municipality that the construction of the macro car park jeopardizes the declaration of the Paisaje de la Luz as a World Heritage Site and we have asked them to recalibrate the project by adhering to the minimum areas hold what is necessary to give them to serve the hospital and not run a private business,” explains Manuela Villa, Socialist MP in the Madrid Parliament. “Now ICOMOS agrees with us and calls on the municipality and city council to drastically reduce parking and to reconsider the construction of the new building,” continues Villa. “We are asking the community to stop the works of the baby Jesus immediately and to call an emergency meeting with the three relevant administrations to jointly address their actions on this property,” he continues. And he emphasizes: “We hope that the community will improve”.
It’s not a side issue. There are already precedents for the withdrawal of World Heritage declarations, such as that of the seaport of Liverpool (UK) or the Elbe valley of Dresden (Germany). And Madrid already knows that its macro parking does not have the approval of the experts consulted by Unesco.
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