One hundred new benches will be added to Tartu’s urban space with support from the participative budget
Tartu City Government Press Release
/ By the end of this summer, the Tartu City Government will have installed 100 new benches in Tartu. To date, four different types of benches have been selected, a public tender has been carried out to procure the benches, and the final selection of locations is underway. With a participative budget of €100,000, a total of 100 new benches can be purchased and installed.
The benches were chosen to be as comfortable as possible, with backrests and armrests, and with wooden slats that give a warm and inviting impression. As the benches will mainly be used further away from the city centre, to enhance the already existing network, their selection was also based on what was already present in one location or another in the city, to ensure that the new benches fit into the already existing whole.
In order to learn more about the opinions of city residents on the location of the benches, a call for ideas was held earlier this year, where residents were able to suggest locations for the benches using a map application. Suggestions could also be made by telephoning the hotline 1789, and two workshops were held for older residents – in the Annelinna Library and the Tähtvere Day Centre. More than 400 city residents took part in the call for ideas, submitting nearly 900 location proposals.
Tartu Deputy Mayor Raimond Tamm thanked everyone who contributed to the selection of the bench locations. ‘We understand that there were many more requests than we can meet with the 100 new benches currently planned. Fortunately, the map and the proposals that have been drawn up will be saved and will serve as an excellent resource for future work,’ added Tamm.
The proposed locations were analysed by staff from the Department of Urban Planning and the Department of Spatial Planning in collaboration with the author of the bench idea. At present, around 120 locations have been selected, but all of them will have to be surveyed in the urban space to see if they can actually accommodate a bench, or what kind of preparatory work is required for the new bench location.
The choice of locations was based, among other things, on the need to have a proportional number of benches in the various city districts based on the number of inhabitants, and the proposals submitted by the 60+ age group were considered very important. For some of the proposed locations, it was also known that benches were already planned to be installed as part of the street reconstruction and therefore these locations were not chosen.
The choice of locations also clearly revealed the desire of city residents to have more benches located in areas outside of apartment associations and chain stores.
The benches will be installed in the urban space by the end of this summer.
Pictured in the attached photo are the selected bench types, and the map shows the 898 proposed locations submitted during the call for ideas.
Last changed 26.05.2023
