Construction of an outdoor artificial ice rink in Tuusula, initiative
Winter sports facilities in Tuusula are in heavy use, provided that the weather conditions are suitable. Tuusula offers excellent skiing and skating opportunities during snowy, frosty winters. Nowadays, winters are so short that people only get to skate on natural ice, such as the ice on the school and Lake Tuusula, for around 4–8 weeks, if that. This has limited skating opportunities, especially for children and young people, which hinders the learning of skating skills. As a municipality, we should be able to offer the residents of Tuusula the opportunity to skate for almost the entire winter, as it is almost as popular as skiing, if not the most popular winter sport. It should be noted that in several neighbouring municipalities, such as Sipoo, Vantaa and Nurmijärvi, skating opportunities have been improved with the help of outdoor artificial ice rinks. It has also been proven that people’s lack of physical activity has significant costs for society. It is wrong for us to think that it is better to go to neighbouring municipalities when we have three ice rinks. Public skating and free skating sessions are understandably very poorly available in our fine ice rinks, which are mainly used for club activities. Many children and young people have no means of transport other than what their parents can provide. If we had such a great opportunity to offer this, children and young people could go skating and play hockey with their friends at almost any time of the day. At the moment, our recreational skating and playing in our free time largely depends on outdoor ice rinks.
The cost of an ice hockey rink and a skating area of the same size is around €0.5–0.7 million. The location should be chosen so that it is as easily accessible as possible.
We, the undersigned representatives, propose that an outdoor ice rink and ice hockey rink be included in Tuusula’s investment programme. The planning of the outdoor ice rink should begin as soon as possible, with procurement possibly in 2023 or 2024 at the latest.
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Answer
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Processing stages
- Council §6: To be prepared by the municipal executive committee
- Management team To be prepared by the Education and Culture Division
- Culture and Leisure Committee §28: Proposal to the municipal executive committee
- Council §43: Initiative discussed