Mykolaiv mayor praises chief architect Polyakov at the session: «He cleans out stables that have been polluted for many years»

Chief architect of Mykolaiv Yevhen Poliakov. Archive photo NikVesti

Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych said that the reorganised land resources department, which was merged into the Department of Architecture and Urban Development, is working much more efficiently than it has for the past eight years.

He said this at a session of the Mykolaiv City Council on Thursday, 23 April, according to NikVesti.

Deputy Olena Kiseliova of the «European Solidarity» faction initiated the discussion of the land sale. According to her, citizens who have buildings on communal land plots and want to buy the land apply to the city council, but receive neither a positive nor a negative answer. She noted that «issues have been lingering for years somewhere on the sidelines».

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Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych said that there is no point in selling the plots now, but rather keeping them in lease. According to him, when the city's master plan is ready, it may be necessary to buy out the property of citizens standing on communal land.

He also responded to Olena Kiseliova's remark about the delay in considering land issues. The mayor stressed that the Department of Architecture is now working much more efficiently than before.

«We had a very big problem. Previously, the Department of Architecture, being a department, had some problems. With the arrival of the new architect (Chief Architect of Mykolaiv Yevhen Poliakov, — note), these departments, which have merged into the department, are working more efficiently. In my personal opinion. They are cleaning out the stables that have been fouled up for many years and putting all draft decisions to a vote at the commission and at the session. I assess the effectiveness of the newly created department today as much more effective than it has been over the past eight years,» said Oleksandr Sienkevych.

It should be noted that Oleksandr Sienkevych believes that the work of the city's land resources department over the past eight years has been less effective. It was Oleksandr Sienkevych who was first elected mayor in 2015. In October 2017, he was prematurely removed from office by the city council, but on 16 March 2018, the court reinstated him in office, recognising the removal as illegal. In 2020, he won the mayoral election for the second time.

As a reminder, on 25 April 2024, members of the Mykolaiv City Council reorganised the Land Resources Department by merging it into the Department of Architecture and Urban Development. At the same time, the draft decision «on optimising the structure of the executive bodies of the Mykolaiv City Council provides for the establishment of a commission to reorganise the land resources department.

Prior to this, the mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, said that the city council would be reducing its staff due to the city's budget being cut by almost half.

This is due to the fact that under the law «On the State Budget for 2024», the Cabinet of Ministers planned to direct all personal income tax revenues from military personnel, 64% of which currently remain in local budgets, to the state budget. The Association of Ukrainian Cities believes that these funds are likely to dissolve in the state budget, as well as 36% of the current personal income tax, which is managed by the Ministry of Finance. We are talking about 25.8 billion hryvnias this year and 93.7 billion hryvnias next year, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said earlier.

To compensate for the loss of personal income tax on military income, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine may allocate a subsidy of more than 517 million hryvnias to communities in Mykolaiv region.