The decisive month. In November the Regional Administrative Court will examine the appeals against the referendum and the Single City – as proposed by the Regional Council – presented by the spontaneous committee for the “No” and the Bruzia Municipal Council, led by Franz Caruso. The Committee is assisted by lawyers Alfredo Gualtieri and Fabio Liparoti and the executive by lawyers Angelo Piazza and Renato Rolli. The fixed day is Wednesday 6th; in the meantime the administrative judges will also have to deal with the appeal produced by the municipality of Castrolibero with the lawyers Alfonso Celotto and Gianluca Esposito, by Luzzi with the lawyer Dario Sammarro and by the “Committee for the polycentric city” of Cosenza represented by the lawyer Rossella Barberio.
The centre-right regional councilors who appeared in court claiming the full legitimacy of the procedures followed by the Region are instead represented by the lawyers Achille and Oreste Morcavallo. President Roberto Occhiuto appeared with the support of the regional attorney’s office formed with lawyers Nicola Greco, Paolo Falduto and Francesco Ventrice.
With a referendum, the citizens of Cosenza, Rende and Castrolibero are asked to vote for or against the hypothesized merger process and to choose the name to give to the new city. Here are the three hypotheses: Nuova Cosenza, Cosenza or Cosenza-Rende-Castrolibero.
The association already deployed
The association “Io “Partecipiamo” led by the former Bruzio mayor Piero Minutolo immediately took sides on the name. «New Cosenza must be, in our opinion, the city of participation and decentralization with a government divided into a municipal council and at least three municipalities (Cosenza centre, Rende and Castrolibero) equipped with bodies elected by universal suffrage to which adequate human resources can be delegated , instrumental and financial for the management of the maintenance of roads, pavements, school buildings, greenery, water and sewerage networks, neighborhood sports facilities and the promotion of initiatives aimed at enhancing cultural and religious traditions. With the creation of the city of three cities”, writes Minutolo, “it will be possible to start the establishment of a new public transport company which will be able to provide a service capable of connecting with its own means the central nucleus of Cosenza with the University, the industrial and all the fractions and at the same time give a serious and positive response to the former Amaco workers. Furthermore, considering that the new institution will, in the best of cases, be operational no sooner than three years, the location of the new hospital will have to be decided immediately, without further delay. Too much time has already been lost: a lot of money has been spent and seven years have passed in vain since the delivery of the first feasibility study to the Region.