Pesaro has its PEBA, Perugini: «Epochal change of pace, now working towards a Capital of accessibility».

Proud applause from the chamber welcomed the PEBA of the Municipality of Pesaro, the Plan for the elimination of architectural barriers, presented at the meeting by the President of the Municipal Council who said: «It is a stage that excites me, which marks an epochal change of pace for our Municipality – explained Marco Perugini, who in August 2021 had received the delegation to create the programming tool from the mayor Matteo Ricci – and which brings to completion the first phase of this broad, shared and concrete project chosen to make Pesaro a city, or rather a Capital, of accessibility".

The programming tool approved unanimously by the Council must be used by each municipal office to make the territory more accessible, draw up the calendar, timing and resources necessary for the interventions (those registered by Peba of Pesaro have an overall value of 60 million) which, underlines Perugini, will not have to be included in a single expenditure chapter; just as PEBA, in the future, must not be the responsibility of a single service and a single department.

Perugians he then highlighted, «the enormous work carried out together with theUNIVPM, to the council commissions, to the citizens, to the students, to the associations and to the Guarantor for the rights of people with disabilities, whom I sincerely thank. In two years, a myriad of data was collected (especially related to people's movements, monitored and entered into the PEBA via the GIS geographic information system). This allows us today to have a picture of the architectural barriers of public buildings and infrastructures which will be continuously updated and, at the same time, to have an abacus of solutions to optimize time and resources".

The Prime Minister then rattled off some numbers: «In Pesaro we have 6032 pedestrian paths – this is where the architectural barriers are mostly concentrated – a total of 800km long. Figures that make us understand the amount of interventions necessary. At the moment I am 45 priority axes of intervention; 33 public buildings (schools, cultural containers, etc) with difficulties to eliminate; 58 streets with varying degrees of difficulty and 56 intersections and roundabouts to act on" concluded Perugini before underlining "the need to stimulate the culture of accessibility, even in private life and above all in our daily lives".

THE STEPS

The path to the PEBA of Pesaro it was started in August 2021, by the mayor of Pesaro Matteo Ricci who assigned president Perugini the delegation for the implementation of the Plan.

Among the numerous stages of sharing and involvement of citizens, associations and stake holders that have taken place over the months, there were the first edition of the General States of Pesaro accessibility (April 2022), the agreement between the Administrations of Pesaro and Fano to develop a joint and homogeneous project (May 2022); the assignment of the task of drafting the Plan and action strategies to the Polytechnic University of Marche (assigned in September 2022); the second edition of the General States of Pesaro accessibility (June 2023); the presentation of the first version of PEBA during the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (December 2023).