The Grocco-La Salute market is likely to close forever after ninety years of life. The sixty stalls, which until a few years ago also employed two or three people each, have been brought to their knees by the repercussions on tourism and trade caused by the health crisis. The crisis had begun a few years earlier, with the decline of thermalism and the reduction of visitors to the La Salute establishment. The images of people who came in large numbers to shop during the summer now seem …
The Grocco-La Salute market is likely to close forever after ninety years of life. The sixty stalls, which until a few years ago also employed two or three people each, have been brought to their knees by the repercussions on tourism and trade caused by the health crisis. The crisis had begun a few years earlier, with the decline of thermalism and the reduction of visitors to the La Salute establishment. The images of people who came in large numbers to shop during the summer now look like postcards of the past, when the area guaranteed employment and economic growth. The association that gathers the operators of the area argues with the Municipality and accuses the administration of not having respected the commitments made on the cancellation, for about six months, of the Cosap, the tax relating to the occupation of public land. “In other situations – claims the group – it was cleared for ten months. In Montecatini, the mayor Luca Baroncini, the councilor for the budget Alessandro Lumi and the councilor for production activities Francesca Greco had said that we would not have to pay the Cosap relating to a period of at least six months. In protest we are ready not to pay the amount requested which, in total, for the market, amounts to about 95 thousand euros. The promise to reset Cosap has not been kept, even if we are no longer able to earn a euro. Our projects for the relaunch of the Grocco market, enhancing the connection with Viale Verdi, were not taken into consideration. We wanted to reopen the closed stalls, asking important companies in the agro-food sector in the area to sell their products packaged in these spaces. We are ready to organize a demonstration in front of the town hall and we want concrete answers from the council “. The mayor Baroncini reassures the exhibitors about the Cosap affair and announces new interventions by his administration. “Last summer – he explains – the government issued the Relaunch Decree, which envisaged a 30% reduction in Cosap for public establishments that occupy public land on a fixed and temporary basis. The decision of the Conte executive had left excluding stalls such as those of the Grocco-La Salute market. The junta, with its own resources, has extended this benefit also to the owners of these activities. Subsequently, the government has provided for a 100% reduction in Cosap for the activities already benefited, still forgetting activities such as those of the market. The Municipality undertakes, always through the use of its own resources, to extend this benefit to the activities of Grocco-La Salute “.
Daniele Bernardini
