10 NEWS
The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk
12 - 18 October 2012
Metro construction noise pollution creates havoc in the city centre, and there’s only one place people are being told where they can go
T
Poor air quality in Copenhagen Researchers suggest introducing ‘clean-air zones’ to Copenhagen to improve the steadily worsening air quality
A
new report has warned that unless the government acts soon, levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and small particulates in Copenhagen’s air will rise to dangerous levels and lead to increased levels of respiratory illness. “If there are no new initiatives, the EU’s threshold will be exceeded on at least seven roads by 2015,” researcher Solvang Jensen, the author of the report that was published by the Danish Centre for Environment and Energy (DCE) at Aarhus University, told Politiken newspaper. The report arrived shortly after the environment min-
ister Ida Auken (Socialistisk Folkeparti) had abandoned new initiatives to improve air quality in Danish cities. According to Politiken, the reason she gave is that “the latest figures show that we will not, after all, have excessive levels of NO2 in 2015 in Copenhagen.” Politiken challenged this view, arguing that the location where the government measures air quality in Copenhagen, on HC Andersen’s Boulevard between Tivoli and City Hall, is actually only the eighth-most polluted stretch of road in the city. Auken argued that the government dropped introducing stricter air quality legislation in order to wait for the publication of results from a congestion committee, which are due in three months’ time.
The congestion committee was established as a compromise after the government earlier this year abandoned introducing a congestion charge for the city. The commission’s job is to examine other methods of reducing city traffic. “We need cleaner air in the city, and we will make a proposal. But we will only do that once we have seen the congestion committee’s catalogue of proposals. It will be published in January, so instead of tackling the same thing twice, we will tackle it all at once. We have waited ten years so we can wait another three months.” The DCE recommends introducing ‘clean-air zones’ in the city where older petrol and diesel vehicles that do not conform to particular standards will be banned. (PS)
Unions furious at “broken promise” of 12 weeks of paternity leave for men
T
he government is cheating new fathers out of three months of earmarked paternity leave, according to the nation’s major trade unions. According to the weekly newsletter A4, the unions argue that the decision by the employment minister, Mette Frederiksen (Socialdemokraterne) – to defer earmarking three months of leave, and instead form a committee to examine the proposal – is a complete turn-around by the government. “The government promised in black and white that it would give three months in paternity leave,” Lizette Risgaard, a spokesperson for LO, the Danish confederation of trade unions, told A4. Risgaard said that when the parties that make up the current government were sitting in opposition to the previous Venstre-led regime, ensuring more time off for men, so they could to take part in nurturing their children, was a big part of their agenda. She said it was
When in opposition, the government parties advocated earmarking parental leave for fathers
“incomprehensible” that they would now back down on their promises. Representatives from the country’s trade unions all expressed frustration that extended paternity leave is not on the agenda for the current parliamentary session. Anette Borchorst, a social scientist specialising in gender equality at Aalborg University, said the government was break-
ing a promise. “This is an about-face,” she told A4. “The government stated clearly that it would earmark up to three months of paid paternity leave, and if they do not submit the bill, it is hard to interpret it as anything other than a broken promise.” Borchorst said that greater equality in child care leave will create a better balance in families. (RW)
Nyborg prisoner pulls off great burka escape Police are confident of capturing all three people involved and do not consider the escapee as being dangerous
Colourbox
he three-bedroom apartment can accommodate 12 adults and four children at a time. That’s all the Metro construction company, Metroselskabet, has offered as a place of refuge to no less than 90 families seeking escape from raging noise levels. As part of the Cityring expansion, a new Metro station is being laid near Copenhagen Central Station (Hovedbanegård), and residents in the area are being exposed to extreme levels of noise pollution, Politiken newspaper reported. Noise levels there have been recorded at 93 decibels around the Metro construction site. The permitted noise level is 70 decibels. Within apartments, residents are exposed to an astonishing 75 decibels of sound, from what is the biggest construction project in the capital in the past hundred years. Ture Andersen, an ear, nose and throat specialist at the hearing clinic Høreklinken in Odense, told Politiken that such noise exposure can create serious stress “symptoms [which] could include memory loss, disturbed sleep patterns and high blood pressure”.
Some 90-100 families are company spokesperson Rebekka thought to be affected by the Nymark attempted to shift the noise, and the only way to es- blame in an email sent to Policape the debacle is a single apart- tiken regarding the controversy. ment, situated nearby. “The Expropriation CommitVeronica Juhl, who is one tee requested Metroselskabet to of the many victims of the noise provide a large apartment within pollution, told the vicinity of the Politiken she area in question couldn’t believe it for residents who when she received seek refuge from Metroselskabet’s the noise,” Nyoffer in the post. We don’t know mark wrote. “It “At first whether to laugh is therefore up to glance I was imthe committee to pressed. I assumed or cry. It feels like decide whether that each affected measure is they’re mocking us that family would be appropriate or entitled to a three not.” bedroom apartment, but they’re Metroselskabet has also reliterally offering one apartment vealed that the apartment was to accommodate a whole street,” used by a total of eleven people she said. “We don’t know wheth- during the latter part of Seper to laugh or cry. It feels like tember, and has since been unthey’re mocking us.” occupied. Christian Mogensen, who is In a bid to calm the situathe former head of the the body tion, the city’s deputy mayor for responsible for relocating fami- employment and integration, lies affected by Metro construc- Anna Mee Allerslev (Radikale), tion (Expropriation Commit- told Politiken that when undertee), told Politiken that the offer going such a massive project, was woefully inadequate. some inconvenience will have to “To only offer a single three- be tolerated. bedroom flat to 90 families as “We need to be aware that in a means to escape the noise is order for the Metroselskabet to completely unreasonable,” Mo- progress with its work, certain gensen said. “Families should waivers must be accepted in reat least be offered hotel rooms gards to noise pollution levels,” where they can reside until the she said. “Then we can look noise levels subside. People are into how to reduce construction sick of living around here.” noise in the future.” While Metroselskabet has The expansion of the Metro is yet to make a public statement, expected to finish in 2018. (BSM)
Government backs off paternity leave promise Colourbox
Families affected by Metro noise asked to share one apartment
U
sing a burka supplied by a visitor, a prisoner managed to escape from Nyborg State Prison in Funen on Saturday evening. The inmate was visited by a man and a woman clad in a burka, a traditional Muslim garment that veils the face. At some point during the visit, the inmate put on the burka and calmly strolled out of the prison with the other man at around 18:30. Funen police force have notified the Schengen area of the 30-year-old’s escape and have searched his known hang-outs. Prison inspector Arne Tornvig Christensen said that the prison is investigating how the breakout could have happened. “We strengthened our inspection and supervision procedures for visits a year or so ago. But we now have to see whether or not protocol should be further beefed up,” Christensen told Ekstra Bladet tabloid. “He is not a hardened criminal, and he has no
Police have released a photo of the suspect they are searching for
relations to gang activity.” The woman who arrived wearing the burka also mysteriously escaped, although the police expect to charge her with aiding and abetting. “I can confirm that we are looking for all three. We clearly believe that they were all involved in the escape and are in cahoots,” Funen Police spokesperson Lars Thede told Ekstra Bladet. “He is a foreigner and we believe that he will try to reach his home country, but we don’t see him as being
dangerous and won’t use the media in our hunt. But we’ll get him and the other two as well.” The national prison association, Fængselsforbundet, indicated that procedure dictates that visitors are to be checked when they arrive and depart, and therefore believed that the escape was the result of human error. If caught, the escaped inmate could face two additional years on top of his current sentence, while his helper also faces jail time. (CW)
Online this week The end of mass Malmö migration? Since the opening of the Øresund Bridge in 2000, Danish families have been migrating across the strait to Malmö in favour of considerably cheaper real estate and automobiles and, for international couples, less rigid immigration laws. With comparatively high salaries from their jobs in Copenhagen and
a strong exchange rate, many chose to commute between the two cities. Lately, however, the trend has been declining. According to a study by Nykredit, 180 Danes moved back to Copenhagen from Malmö in 2012, and the total number of Danes in the southern Swedish city has decreased by 720 since 2010.
Opposition: Cheaper to fund eastern European prisons Opposition parties Venstre (V), Konservative (K) and Dansk Folkeparti (DF) are willing to help fund new prison wings or rehabilitation programmes in eastern European countries in order to keep foreign criminals out of Denmark. Prison space in Denmark costs 1,900 kroner a day, and the parties suggest that
this cost could be spared if some of that money were to be directly wired to the countries in question. “Denmark spends almost a quarter of a million kroner on incarcerating criminals who could just as well be convicted and held in their own countries,” Karsten Lauritzen, a spokesperson for V, said.
Big Arnie totally recalls Nielsen fling ahead of city trip Arnold Schwarzenegger was in Copenhagen on Thursday to present the Sustainia Award, but it wasn’t the first time he’s been inside Denmark. Schwarzenegger’s soon-to-be released autobiography reveals that in 1985 he had an affair with Danish actress Brigitte
Nielsen. Now that his governatorship and marriage are terminated, Schwarzenegger is putting his philandering aside and focusing on bigger and better things – including climate change, which brought him to Copenhagen to present the Sustania award.
Read the full stories at cphpost.dk