Lecce: Puglia Sociale In, the projects for the 5 new neighborhood playgrounds are ready

Lecce: Puglia Sociale In, the projects for the 5 new neighborhood playgrounds are ready.

A basketball court, a 5-a-side football pitch, a space for free-body gymnastics and the Calisthenics, a multisport field and a tennis court: these are the intended uses of the five playgrounds planned as part of the "Chiesetta Balsamo – Sports areas in the city”, inserted into the larger one of Southern workshops, financed with the regional program “Social Puglia In”. The five playgrounds are located in the park in front of the Chiesetta Balsamo, in Borgo Pace in via Gidiuli, in Borgo San Nicola in Parco Baden Powell, in the Salesiani neighborhood in Piazza Madonna di Medjugorie and in the Stadio neighborhood in Piazzale Pesaro.

The final projects for the sports spaces were approved in today's session of the municipal council, but how to redevelop the four playgrounds spread throughout the neighbourhoods, in addition to the basketball court already planned in front of Chiesetta Balsamo, was decided by the Administration together with the residents in four listening days, called “Word to the Neighborhood”, which took place between the end of November and mid-January. During these meetings, organized with Italiacamp, which supports the Municipality in the broader Officine Mezzogiorno project, residents were given the opportunity to express their preferences orally and to write them down by completing a questionnaire also administered online on the Municipality's institutional website. The chosen destinations, therefore, were those indicated by the majority of residents in the four appointments.

Specifically, in the park of Balsamo Church, the currently unusable and functionless facility will be converted into a basketball court by carrying out maintenance on the waterproofing layer, creating the synthetic resin playing flooring, tracing the game lines, creating a low perimeter fence, installing a high perimeter net and baskets from basketball.

In Piazza Madonna di Medjugorie, the pitch, which is also currently unused and has no specific function, will be transformed into a multisport pitch by creating the waterproofing layer and the synthetic resin flooring, tracing the playing lines, creating the low perimeter fence and the high perimeter net and installing sports equipment.

Al Baden Powell Park, the present facility, currently used as a 5-a-side football pitch, will become a functional area for free body exercises and Calisthenics by redoing the synthetic resin flooring surface, arranging the low perimeter fence and installing dedicated sports equipment.

In via Gidiuli, the current function of the facility as a 5-a-side football field will be maintained by arranging the low perimeter fence and installing the high perimeter net and the five-a-side football goals that were already missing.

Infine in Piazzale Pesaro, the current function of the tennis court will be maintained with a series of interventions that will improve its use: maintenance of the surface paving, revision of the playing lines, maintenance of the low perimeter fence and installation of the high perimeter net, maintenance of existing equipment .

«With these 5 playgrounds that we are redeveloping and making usable again – declares the councilor for Sport and sports facilities Paolo Foresio – our ambition to equip all neighborhoods of the city with spaces dedicated to sport and free-body gymnastics takes shape, diversifying activities to satisfy everyone's tastes. We decided how to redevelop the four pitches spread throughout the neighborhoods together with the residents in four different meetings which were a great moment of participation. We have accepted the requests made by the majority for each space and we will return to illustrate the final projects to them in a further moment of sharing. I thank Italiacamp for the support and advice also in this listening process."