Police in Poland have detained seven people on charges relating to the building of an enormous medieval-style castle on a lake in Notecka Forest, an area protected as part of the EU’s Natura 2000 network.
The building, which is intended to be a residential development, has long aroused concern and controversy, especially after images of its size and location came to national attention in 2018.
Environmental approval for the project was revoked last year, but construction continued anyway, reports Gazeta Wyborcza. Among those detained this week are representatives of the investor and local officials.
As well as various administrative offences, they are accused of acting to the detriment of the environment. Notecka Forest, near the western city of Poznań, is home to a number of nature reserves, and the castle development has been deemed to breach rules relating to a local bird sanctuary.
The castle stands on a made-made island on the Kończak canal. Its 14 floors, including a tower reaching 70 metres, are intended to house 46 apartments for 97 people and 10 staff.
Earlier descriptions of the endeavour also mentioned fitness centres, swimming pools, gyms, libraries and a theatre hall, reports TVN24.
Of the seven people detained, two are inspectors from the local building supervision authority, who have been charged with failing to comply with their obligations by not ensuring suspension of the construction works and by testifying falsely in reports. They face potential jail sentence of up to three years.
Two officials from the architecture and constructions department in the local district office face accusations relating to verification of documents presented by the investor, which led to the project being given the green light. The accusations also carry a jail sentence of up to three years.
The architect has been accused of understating the investment area by falsely declaring it to be below two hectares, which is the threshold for submitting a more detailed environmental assessment. That offence carries up to five years of jail time.
Finally, two representatives of DJT, the company leading the investment, were charged with carrying out construction harmful to the environment, breaching the provisions of the Environmental Protection Act. One of them has also been accused of using the document that understated the construction site’s area, reports TVN24.
The prosecutor’s office is currently interrogating the suspects, several of whom have refused to testify and none of whom had pleaded guilty by Friday morning, reports Gazeta.pl.
"Było ich trzech, trzy krwawe rekinyKażdy z nich kieszeń wypchaną miał ciasnoNa ich widok trzęsło się prawie całe…
Opublikowany przez Heksa Urbex Poniedziałek, 13 stycznia 2020
In 2015, the Regional Directorate for Environmental Protection (RDOŚ) in Poznań gave the project the go-ahead, based on an environmental assessment provided by the castle’s developer, which stated that the project would not adversely affect the Natura 2000 protected site.
However, after the media brought the matter to the attention of the environment ministry in 2018, the General Directorate for Environmental Protection (GDOŚ), the main national public body charged with overseeing environmental compliance of investments, launched an investigation.
The Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) and local prosecutor’s office also began looking into the case.
At the time, Greenpeace issued a statement highlighting problems with Poland’s approval process for large infrastructure project, which allowed investors themselves to choose the company to carry out environmental impact reports.
“The quality and reliability of such assessments prepared at the investor’s request happens to be very bad,” said Marek Józefiak, media and policy officer at Greenpeace Polska.
In the case of the castle in Notecka Forest, one of the authors of the environmental assessment was later appointed as a board member of another company founded by the owner of DJT.
In April 2019, RDOŚ in Poznań repealed its approval for the castle, due to the construction area exceeding the original declaration, reports TVN24. Yet despite that decision, construction on the project continued.
Main image credit: Lukasz Cynalewski / Agencja Gazeta
Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.
