Cagliari: a race against time to avoid losing the PNRR funding for the construction of the Sports Hall and the Tennis Club.

During a press conference held this morning at Palazzo Bacaredda, Mayor Massimo Zedda expressed concern about the possibility of losing funding from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (Pnrr) intended for the construction of the new Sports Hall in the Sant'Elia district and the regeneration of the Monte Urpinu Tennis Club sports facility. The total value of the financing amounts to approximately 20 million euros.

“We are racing against time in the absence of planning and works that can be immediately started so as not to lose the possibility of realizing the two works”, Mayor Zedda said.

The mayor's concerns were accentuated by the arrival of two notes from the Presidency of the Council of Ministers - Department of Sport, which require the Municipality the start of the works by August 31st and the issuing of the first progress report of the works by December 31st of this 2024.

Zedda recalled that “The initial mistake was the use of Pnrr funds that had a very tight timeframe for works of this complexity. Time was wasted, too much precious time. In December 2022, the project was presented with great fanfare by the Mayor and the President of the Region. A year later, the pantomime of moving the stadium to “Su stangioni” began, then a new hospital in place of the stadium and the Palazzetto and so on, crescendoing from madness to madness. These are the causes of the announced loss of resources”. Perplexity that he expressed both informally and formally in the Regional Council of Sardinia, also due to the "complexity of the procedural process" to carry out the two public works, also taking into consideration the recognized environmental and landscape value of the intervention areas involved.

"I met - added the Mayor – together with the Sports Councilor, Giuseppe Macciotta, Minister Andrea Abodi two weeks ago. I was aware of this risk, but with the contribution of the Minister and Sport and Health, we are trying to guarantee the realization of the two works, also by replacing the Pnrr resources with other financing channels".

The Mayor therefore expressed the hope that the recent communications from the Presidency of the Council of Ministers are "the first and last of their kind". He also added that "the illusion of having obtained hundreds of millions of euros does not imply spending hundreds of millions of euros. For what has not been done in the last five years, the risk is therefore to compromise the future of Cagliari".

The situation requires immediate action to avoid missing out on a crucial funding opportunity for the development of the city's infrastructure on which the municipal administration is committed daily at every level.

Also present at the meeting with journalists this morning on Friday 26 July 2024 were: the councilor and deputy mayor Cristina Mancini, the councilor Yuri Mario Marcialis, the councilor Matteo Lecis Cocco Ortu and the president of the city council, Marco Benucci.