[ad_1]
On Monday, LKAB requested a so-called planning mandate, meaning the Kiruna municipality should be deprived of self-determination for the current detailed plan, which will allow mining to continue.
SVT has forwarded three questions to Per Bolund, who is the responsible minister in the Ministry of Finance for the management of LKAB.
1) How do you see the situation in Kiruna that has led to the letter?
2) How fast can LKAB expect the problem to be addressed?
3) The government’s attitude has been that the local parties resolve the social transformations in the mineral fields. Can the LKAB letter make the government take a more active role in the process?
On Tuesday morning, the responses came by email and the response reads:
“The home office has just come to the government, and will now be set up within government offices in the same way that we normally do administrative matters. The government continues to hope that the parties themselves can come to a common solution. “
LKAB has previously announced that it is necessary to have the detailed plan adopted for the first quarter of 2021. Stefan Hämäläinen is LKAB’s director of social conversions.
– That we are in a hurry, we believe that we have left with all the desirable clarity. But we have not received any promise in any way and we cannot receive it. We have turned to the government as an authority, he says
LKAB still awaits a local solution, but in that case, the politicians of the municipality must meet for an additional meeting of the municipal council and the city council. The next opportunity to adopt the plan at a regular meeting is at the city council on September 14.
Subsequently, it awaits an appeal process that, according to the planning and development manager of the Kiruna municipality, can take between eight months and a year.
Stefan Hämäläinen does not want to speculate on the time frame.
– Before making a municipal decision, it is difficult to speculate whether or not the detailed plan will be appealed. When it comes to this particular plan, it’s less complicated with fewer business owners, which could mean less risk of appeals. But we certainly do not know until after the decision has been made and appeals to the Kiruna municipality have been received.
