Due to dispute with municipality at Blejska Dobrava, discontinued entry point to Vintgar Gorge
Association and municipality will try to resolve dispute at meeting planned by municipality after end of summer holidays
At Blejska Dobrava, they discontinued the entry point to Vintgar Gorge. Thus, physical ticket purchase for the gorge, for viewing which prior online purchase is recommended, is possible only at Bled bus station and at central parking lot at Lip Bled.
Municipality of Jesenice and Tourist Association Gorje, which manages the gorge through company Soteska Vintgar, prepared content of agreement on co-financing joint activities for arranging tourist area of Vintgar Gorge and its influence area for years 2025 and 2026 this spring. It also stipulates payment of compensation for excessive burden on parking lot at Blejska Dobrava, which tourists use for visiting Vintgar. Thus, tourist association should pay municipality 75,000 euros by July 30 this year.
Association started using parking lot this April. "During this time, we called on them several times to sign the agreement and pay compensation, but they did not respond to our calls. Therefore, on July 25, we again urged them to sign and settle obligations by the agreed deadline, as coordinated and recorded in the document. At the same time, we informed them of the procedure that the municipality would have to carry out in case of non-fulfillment of obligations, namely that from August 1, Vintgar visitors would no longer be able to park for free," emphasized Municipality of Jesenice.
They added that tourist association used municipal parking lot for more than three months without legal basis and acted contrary to the law on state and local self-government real property. "Therefore, Municipality of Jesenice was obliged to act and protect its property," they emphasized when reintroducing parking fees on the parking lot from August 1 under the same regime that applied from 2021 to 2023. First one and a half hours is free due to cemetery visitors, daily parking fee is five euros.
Dispute between Municipality of Jesenice and tourist association stems from problems in arranging wooden facility next to cemetery at Blejska Dobrava, intended for toilets and small information point for Vintgar Gorge.
As told to STA by Municipality of Jesenice, the municipality financed construction of the facility and in March this year signed contract with Tourist Association Gorje for its free use. "According to the contract, the association had to complete remaining investment works, namely connection to water supply, sewage and electricity network as well as telecommunications connection, and obtain occupancy permit," stated the municipality.
Director of company Soteska Vintgar Bojan Traven on the other hand emphasized that municipality charged association 130,000 euros for construction of mentioned facility. However, the facility, which should have been completed by end of last year, due to numerous construction defects is still not functional and occupancy permit cannot be obtained for it.
This is the reason association did not sign agreement and pay compensation for parking lot. It wants the mentioned facility to be arranged first, as it is not usable in current state. "We warned municipality about this for four months, but they insisted we transfer 75,000 euros to them, but it doesn't work that way," Traven told STA and described municipality's attitude as unfair and extortionate. Thus, he decided to withdraw from Blejska Dobrava.
Before that, association at Blejska Dobrava arranged paths for visitors, provided compensations to farmers and organized visitor information and transports to gorge. From Blejska Dobrava, about one tenth of all visitors accessed the gorge, mostly foreigners stopping on way to sea.
Mentioned visitors often did not buy tickets online in advance and could buy them for available slots at entry point at Blejska Dobrava. From now on, this is not possible. Physical tickets are sold only at central parking lot at Lip Bled and at main Bled bus station, from where most visitors are transported to Vintgar, as there are many stationary guests staying in Bled among them.
Association and municipality will try to resolve dispute at meeting planned by municipality after end of summer holidays, where they will discuss further steps.
Municipality told STA regarding status of wooden facility that since last summer they demand from selected contractor earliest possible execution of works. Handover of facility was on July 7 this year, when deadline for remedying deficiencies was also set. Nevertheless, supervisor on July 29 found several deficiencies still not remedied, municipality daily urges contractor to complete works.
Source:
https://www.rtvslo.si/lokalne-novice/gorenjska/zaradi-spora-z-obcino-na-blejski-dobravi-ukinili-vstopno-tocko-za-sotesko-vintgar/754595