Livange stadium shrinking

(CS) The plans for the new Livange football stadium and shopping centre have been downsized after ongoing negotiations, while the public might still be able to overturn the project.

Following talks between entrepreneur Flavio Becca and minister of the middle classes Françoise Hetto-Gaasch, Becca has agreed to scaling back the dimensions of the stadium.

In the coming weeks, Hetto-Gaasch will be meeting with the council of aldermen in Roeser, together with the mayor Tom Jungen (LSAP) to continue talks on the disputed project.

While the initial response of the commune, which Livange is a part of, had been marked by openness towards the undertaking, hesitation and growing concern cast a shadow over the massive project.

The shopping centre alone was planned to be roughly three times the size of other shopping centres located within the area of the capital.

Becca has been asked to present revised plans following these talks. It is unclear at this point what agreements have been struck between the minister and the entrepreneur.

Despite these negotiations, the project is far from being secure, as the public will be casting the deciding vote in a referendum. Both the council of aldermen and parliament have signalled that they will respect the wishes of the Roeser commune's citizens.

Should residents put a stop to the project, a different building site will be taken into consideration by the government.

In the meantime Mouvement Ecologique president Blanche Weber has criticised that investors continued to have the upper hand opposite the government in this project, saying the government had failed to show that the current model was the most viable solution.