Four-leaf clover bypasses mayor: Postpones port decision until after the election

KOLDING: The future of Kolding's ambitious port project, Marina City, is once again on uncertain ground. The project, which was to transform the city's waterfront into a new district with up to 400 homes and a large marina, is now being put on hold, as a political majority in Kolding's city council has demanded a thorough investigation of the port's future.

This concerns the four mayoral candidates from the Liberal Party, the Danish People's Party, the Social Democrats and the Socialist Party, who have decided to put all political decisions about the future of Kolding Port on hold until a new city council has taken office after the municipal elections. This is written by JydskeVestkysten.

"It is not about slowing down development, but about giving it direction, calm and responsibility. We owe it to the companies and citizens at the port that decisions are made based on facts and not on feelings," writes Jakob Ville, mayoral candidate for the Liberal Party.

Specifically, they propose setting up a port commission that will create the overall, professional basis for the next major decisions about the port's future, and that the ownership strategy be put on hold so that the incoming city council can make its choices on an informed, holistic basis.

This also means that a planned political decision, which was otherwise expected later in October, regarding the introduction of leases for companies at the port, will be pushed to the other side of the election.

Pressure from the business community

The background to the political shift must be found, among other things, in pressure from the business community. Back in September, JydskeVestkysten reported that six large business and trade associations - including the Confederation of Danish Industry, the Confederation of Danish Metals and Danish Ports - had sent a letter to Kolding City Council urging it to postpone all decisions on the port's future until after the election.

Companies at the port have invested in their activities because the area was previously stable, the organizations warn in a letter from September 4, and advise politicians against making "fragile" decisions a few months before the election.

"Making decisions so close to an election, where a significant part of the municipal council, including the mayor, will be replaced, makes the decision fragile, and it is companies with activities of national interest that place significant amount in the municipality's total economy, and who actively participate in the city's activities, in no way benefit from it," the letter, which DK Nyt has seen, states.

It did not go down well with Mayor Knud Erik Langhoff (K): "The city council has been elected to work for the entire city council term of four years, and Kolding Port is a self-governing port, which is governed by the city council. I am really surprised to receive a letter that they want us to reduce the city council term to three and a half years. So we will of course continue to work with the plans we have adopted," he said.

Conservatives are furious

Christina Foldager (K), who is replacing Knud Erik Langhoff as conservative mayoral candidate, calls the withdrawal in TV Syd an example of what is wrong with politics in Kolding Municipality, and believes that piles of political work and expensive advice are now being "thrown out with the bathwater".

- We are shocked by the withdrawal that is taking place. Because no ambitions – regardless – will be implemented if we conduct politics in this way, she says.