Debrecen’s General Assembly will decide on the introduction of the new type of season ticket at its meeting scheduled for the 25th of January 2024. Details were announced by Mayor of Debrecen László Papp and Minister of Construction and Transport János Lázár.

László Papp said that he and János Lázár had reviewed the development issues of the past and the near future, which clearly shows that Debrecen is one of Hungary’s most important development centres today. Speaking about the ongoing developments, he said that the funding scheme between Debrecen and the Ministry of Construction and Transport exceeds HUF 159 billion. These will induce a total of around HUF 300 billion in development funds in the coming years.

Significant improvements will be made to the urban infrastructure, in particular to the urban water supply network and the road network.

Reflecting on the public transport news of the past few days, the mayor drew János Lázár’s attention to the importance of rethinking the issues of agglomeration public transport not only in Budapest but also in the rural cities, due to the agglomeration connections.

László Papp stressed that public transport will continue to be a major focus in Debrecen, and an important point of this will be the travel discount scheme for young people and children. He announced that the Debrecen city government aims to provide free local public transport passes for children aged 6-14 years old attending kindergartens and students in public education institutions in Debrecen from the 1st of April 2024.

On the details, László Papp explained that the free student pass would be available through the Debrecen City Card and the newly created Junior Debrecen City Card. 

The newly introduced pass will also be available to children who do not live in Debrecen but attend kindergartens and schools in the city. For them, and for children aged 6 to 14 who do not have a Debrecen City Card or who have a City Card but would like to use a separate card for the student pass, the city intends to create the Junior Debrecen City Card.

The Debrecen City Card, which also functions as a free student pass, and the Junior Debrecen City Card could be applied for by the legal representatives of children through an electronic system, an application created by the Ministry of Interior, using a simple online interface. The plastic cards, which are grouped by name, by public education institution, by kindergarten group and by school class, will be issued by the City Card issuers and handed over to the public education institutions’ maintainers, who will then forward them to the eligible children and their parents.

Children of the age group concerned who already have a Debrecen City Card would not be obliged to apply for a new one. 

According to the data provided by the City Card Operator, 2,186 Debrecen City Cards have been issued so far for the 6-14 age group, which means that in this number of cases it is possible to activate the free local transport pass on the existing City Card, if the child’s legal representative decides so.

According to preliminary estimates, there are 16,000 children aged between 6 and 14 attending kindergarten, primary school, and grades 6 and 8 in the city who could be eligible for the free pass. The municipality intends to conclude subsidy contracts with a total of 20 operators of all the public education establishments concerned in the city (mainly primary schools, 6 and 8 grade secondary schools and kindergartens for children aged 6 and over who are still in nursery school).

The first time that these operators would have to order or purchase the pass from DKV Zrt. in March 2024 for children whose legal representatives have applied for it. The validity of the pass would always be for the school year, meaning that it could be used for the first time from the day of its introduction, from the 1st of April to the 31st of August 2024, after which the maintainers would order the passes again for the next school year (from the 1st of September). 

The decision on the introduction of the new type of season ticket – concerning the existing contract between the municipality and DKV Zrt. on public local passenger transport services – will be taken by the Debrecen General Assembly at its meeting scheduled for the 25th of January 2024. At the same time, the Municipal Decree on the Debrecen City Card will also have to be amended, given that the detailed rules for the Junior Debrecen City Card need to be defined in a municipal decree.

Minister of Construction and Transport János Lázár said that Debrecen will once again become one of the capitals of rural Hungary, a key player in Central Europe. Thus, today’s meeting looked at the tasks with two objectives in mind. One is infrastructure investments related to the economic development of the region.

According to this, the city needs HUF 700 billion to ensure that the infrastructure in Debrecen is able to serve the increased needs of economic development. These investments are mainly quality of life improvements.

The Minister said that so far the Government has provided HUF 159 billion in funding for Debrecen, which will trigger a total of HUF 300 billion of development. Today, the Government’s Conference of State Secretaries for Public Administration will discuss the next package of around HUF 193 billion, which will eventually amount to another HUF 300-350 billion.

Regarding the details, János Lázár said that a cooperation agreement will be signed with the Municipality of Debrecen on the exact way in which the developments will be implemented. He added that Debrecen and the whole Eastern Hungarian region will undergo a complete transformation thanks to the developments.

On the other purpose of the minister’s visit, János Lázár said that the government had taken a number of decisions on the reform of public transport fares. Accordingly, several changes to the fare system will come into force from the 1st of March 2024.

The changes are as follows:

• All season tickets are abolished, and from March only county and country season tickets will be available.
• Discounted day tickets will be introduced.
• The system of discounts will be revised, with 22 of the current 65 discounts being retained, all of which will be 50 percent. Public servants, such as education workers, will be granted unlimited 50 percent travel on registration.
• From March, under-14s will also be able to travel free of charge, and between 14 and 25 years old will also benefit from a 50 percent discount. In addition, large families and people with disabilities can use public transport free of charge.Card payment will be possible on all Volánbus services.
• All barriers to country tickets will be removed.
• The issue of public transport in Budapest: on which the government proposes that the municipality of the capital should accept the county and country passes and BKK passes for all public transport within the administrative boundaries of Budapest.

Source: debrecen.hu

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According to their information, trees are transported in two ways in less densely and densely populated areas.

Residents in the less populated areas with ‘houses with gardens’, can use the free green waste collection point, located at Vértesi út 9/B. s. located at the Regional Waste Management Plant.  In case this cannot be done,  the pine trees are delivered by the service provider on the day the municipal waste collection route is emptied, so they must be placed next to the bin.

From the 8 th of January 8 to the 31st of January the A.K.S.D. Ltd.  organises a collection service specifically for this purpose in the densely populated parts of the city, in the housing estates.The housing estates are divided into districts, and pine trees are collected from the districts by a scheduled route, one district is cleaned twice a week. The pine trees are requested to be placed next to the route of the communal collection route (near it if possible) without decorations or candy wrapping papers.

The 28-30 tons of pine wood that have become waste will later be composted at the Regional Waste Management Plant. Before processing the pine trees, the A.K.S.D. Ltd.’s employees will clean them of the decorations left on them and then shred them. The 2-4 cm long, shred wood pieces produced in this way are used later to make Agromass Kombi compost.

​Source: Dehir.hu

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As is known, the 750-square-metre ice rink with an ice corridor on Kossuth Square was rebuilt with the support of the BMW Group Plant Debrecen. Although the Christmas fair is over, the skating rink will still be open until the end of January due to the great interest.

Visitors can come with their own skates – which can be sharpened on the spot – but the organisers also provide the opportunity to rent skates in shoe sizes from 25 to 47.

Entry ticket price is HUF 1,200/round

Accompanying ticket: HUF 500/person/round

Skate rental: HUF 1,100/pair/round

Sharpening: HUF 1,600/pair

Rounds:

8 – 10.30 a.m., 11 a.m. – 1.30 p.m., 2-4.30 p.m., 5 – 8 p.m.

The policy regarding the use of the ice rink is available here

Source: debrecen.hu

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A tradition in our city is the New Year’s concert held in the Great Church. This time, the Kodály Philharmonic’s free concert was also an opportunity to celebrate the New Year together in Debrecen. The audience of the concert was greeted by the Reformed bishop Károly Fekete, who said that Jesus left us with several words of blessing and salvation, of which he highlighted one.

‘For 2024, I wish that one of the eight salvation proverbs – Blessed are the humble, for they shall inherit the earth – would come with us. God created the Earth to be his home, the field of realisation of the obedience and free life that he gave to man, placed at the top of creation,’ the Reformed bishop emphasised. He added that conquerors and the boastful come and go, but the humble live here among us and we ourselves can be one of them if we rely on God.

‘Difficult years train people and strengthen communities, and this decade has brought several years that would have been a serious test individually. However, the strong community of Debrecen, in addition to being able to master the challenges, will enter the year 2024 stronger than it was in 2019, the last year before the crises,’ László Papp said in his festive greeting.

‘The momentum of Debrecen’s development was not broken by the trials of the past years,’ the Mayor emphasised. 

‘Although the last two years were almost entirely filled with problems and difficulties, we can still say that Debrecen closed a record year in almost all areas in 2023. The combined value of the developments taking place in the city, the magnitude of the industrial-economic investments, the strengthening of the city’s economy, the new job opportunities, the number of new transport developments launched all show that Debrecen has indeed become the most important development centre of Hungary and the region in recent years, ‘ he said.

László Papp also reminded that exactly 175 years ago, on the 1st of January, 1849, Lajos Kossuth issued the decree in which Debrecen was made the temporary capital of Hungary, thus the guardian city of the Revolution. 

The mayor pointed out that Debrecen had already done everything for development, and this would not change. Among the achievements of 2023, he highlighted the renovation of the Csokonai National Theater building, the completion of the first phase of Civaqua, a fifty-year-old dream, thanks to which the water of River Tisza arrived in Debrecen, but he also spoke about the fact that in 2024 more transport developments will be launched in the city than ever before.

‘We can declare in the last year of this municipal cycle that Debrecen is much stronger, more developed and more promising than five years ago. Let’s start the new year with the awareness of responsible future planning, trusting that we can continue the joint work we have started and, as in the past, we can be the guardian city of freedom, giving hope, faith and a secure future to the citizens of Debrecen and its region, ‘ the Mayor concluded his speech.

The Kodály Philharmonic Debrecen opened the new year with psalms, choral works and organ performances in the Great Church.

Source: dehir.hu

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The plan was to fly from Debrecen to Hurghada by the end of March, but the war interrupted the flight. 

Wizz Air suspended its flights from Budapest and Debrecen to Tel Aviv after Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip launched a surprise attack on Israel on the 7th of October. The terrorists invaded the south of the country, killing more than 1,300 people, wounding around 3,000 others and kidnapping hundreds more. The war has been ongoing ever since, with Israel carrying out a series of reprisals and the government vowing to wipe Hamas off the face of the earth.

Wizz Air is currently scheduled to resume flights from Debrecen to Tel Aviv in mid-March at the earliest, but this is of course, subject to change.

The airline was to have launched an autumn-winter-spring flight to Hurghada in Egypt from Debrecen, with the first flight taking off in October and the last one at the end of March, but now the last date to book in Wizz Air’s system is the 21st of January.

Zsuzsa Trubek, Wizz Air’s communications manager, confirmed to the local news portal that the flight will be cancelled earlier than planned.

Anyone who booked between the 22nd of January and the end of March can choose between a cash refund, 120% of the ticket price in Wizz Air credits, or rebook their ticket for a Budapest departure.

Wizz Air flies from Debrecen to London, Rome, and Larnaca in Cyprus, while Lufthansa flies to Munich.

Source: dehir.hu |Photo credit: Facebook (Papp László)

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From the 1st of January 2024, specialists are meeting patients in state-of-the-art facilities at the new site. 

“From now on, the service operates at 1 Pósa Street, in the DAEFI building, if an urgent intervention is needed outside office hours,” Diiána Széles, Deputy Mayor of Debrecen, posted on her social media page.

Patient traffic data from the past few years show that more than half of the patients come to the Debrecen emergency department from one of the settlements in the county. On weekends and public holidays, patients are seen here from eight in the morning until two in the afternoon.

Source: dehir.hu | Photo credit: dehir.hu (Szabolcs Kandert)

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The packages will make Christmas brighter for families in need with the help of the Hungarian Reformed Church Aid (Magyar Református Szeretetszolgálat).

The students, teachers and staff of the vocational training centre filled twice as many donation boxes with durable food and hygiene products as in the previous year. In total, they were able to help 152 families.

“It has always been important for us to foster social responsibility in our students. I see this becoming stronger in them,” Sándor Szilágyi, Director General of the Debrecen Vocational Training Centre, said. For years, the institutions of the centre have regularly joined the Advent fundraising campaigns of the church.

“We take nothing from this world with us. And if we can donate what we have, let us do it, because there are our fellow human beings who are in a difficult situation,” István Oláh, President-Pastor of the Reformed Parish of Debrecen-Nagytemplom Reformed Church, stressed.

Diána Széles, Deputy Mayor of Debrecen, said that the boxes are also a means of caring, as donations can make a big difference in the lives of people in need in the long term.

“Our goal is to improve the quality of life of those in need after a small amount of help. Because it is important not only to provide one-off help, but also to give opportunities,” she said.

In cooperation with the Debrecen Charity Board and the Hungarian Reformed Church Aid, the parcels will be delivered to families in need before Christmas.

Source: debrecen.hu

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Deputy Mayor of Debrecen Lajos Barcsa said that the Municipality of Debrecen decided on the establishment of the field guard service in 2015 on the initiative of farmers, and their operation – guarding the agricultural land belonging to the administrative territory of Debrecen Megyei Jogú Város – started on 1st July 2015. The field guard service was established within the Debrecen Public Area Inspectorate. It is responsible for the protection of the farmland belonging to the administrative territory of the municipality and the protection of the property of crops and products, equipment, tools, livestock, agricultural buildings and land survey signs on or belonging to the farmland. The field officers shall assist in preventing criminal offences and, where necessary, take action to avoid infringements.

He added that the field guards have a public authority role under the relevant legislation and also play an important role in preventing illegal dumping. Lajos Barcsa stressed that illegally dumped waste pollutes the environment and poses serious public health risks. Illegal dumping of municipal and construction waste by roadside, in forests, forest edges, abandoned areas, private property, unfenced public land, municipal public land, and suburban property is a serious problem.

The deputy mayor underlined that the obligation to remove and treat waste dumped or abandoned in uncontrolled conditions is the responsibility of the owner or former holder of the waste. If the owner or former holder of the waste does not voluntarily comply with the obligation, or if the identity of the owner or former holder cannot be established, the obligation is incumbent on the user of the property on whose property the waste was deposited or abandoned.

Lajos Barcsa said that everyone can report abandoned waste in public areas in person, in writing or electronically at elhagyotthulladek@ph.debrecen.hu or by using the WasteRadar waste reporting application. The Debrecen Public Space Inspectorate continuously monitors the cleanliness of public spaces.

The Debrecen Public Lands Inspectorate sends a quarterly report on the work of the field patrols, noting that in 2022, the field patrols took action in more than 400 cases, but according to this year’s reports, the number of reported incidents is approaching 400.

According to Lajos Barcsa, the best measure would be prevention, but various litter picking campaigns (e.g., EDC – “Debrecen should pick…”, Zrínyi Miklós Hunting Association litter picking campaign) help to eliminate illegal waste.

György Lelesz, head of the Debrecen Public Area Inspectorate, said there are currently seven field guards who help out in the winter months by helping to care for the people living in the city’s suburbs and farms. As a way of improving the work of the field police, he said that they could be more effective in catching offenders by tightening up the legal environment and possibly by increasing their powers of action.

Péter Virág, the county representative of the National Chamber of Agriculture, said there were 39 field guard services in the county, of which the Debrecen centre was one of the largest. Regarding resources, he noted that 27 million forints are granted to these 39 field guard services quarterly. This amount will need to be increased in the future. At the same time, their task is to help the field guards in their work and to provide them with a legal environment that will allow them to work even more efficiently.

Source and photo credit: debrecen.hu

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Another house was inaugurated in Józsa, in Alkotás Street 2023 on the 8th of December, as the construction works of the housing project of the Fény Felé Foundation for people with intellectual disabilities and higher support needs were completed. The grant amounted to almost HUF 790 million.

This money was used to make existing properties accessible and renovate them, and to buy new properties, which were extended and modernised.

“The most important thing was that once we started providing care to people with disabilities, we could create a network where we could really provide care that was appropriate to their needs and age,” Attila Suller Károlyné, chairman of the Foundation’s board of trustees, stressed.

The Foundation is in its 30th year of operation this year. The anniversary is being celebrated with the success of this year’s project. Deputy Mayor of Debrecen Ákos Balázs said that they have been working in close cooperation with the Foundation for more than 25 years: the community of Józsa is a cohesive and inclusive one.

“When you meet them, you see how much love and attention they have, and it teaches us to pay more attention to each other in our daily lives. Debrecen is a caring city, and we have always built on the knowledge and the solidarity that we have here in Debrecen. The work that the Foundation does is a sign of that, plus the heart and soul,” Deputy Mayor Ákos Balázs said.

Attila Fülöp, State Secretary for Welfare Policy, stressed that our disabled fellow citizens can now live independently with care and social work 24/7, in safety, yet with their own decisions.

“Within the framework of the Széchenyi2020 programme, similar investments are being carried out in 35 locations, worth around HUF 16 billion, and I can report that a total of five thousand places are now available nationwide for our fellow citizens with disabilities, so that they can use the kind of services that are the basis of independent living,” Attila Fülöp emphasised.

The Foundation’s properties currently provide subsidised housing for 42 people, day care for 86, home help for 18 and employment for 45 people in the Józsa district.

Source and photo credit: debrecen.hu

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The details were presented at a press conference on 6th December 2023 by Zoltán Piros, the local representative of the area, and the completion of the large-scale road improvement of the section of Tégláskert Street between Vadász and Csordás Streets was also discussed.

As the representative said, the streets and pavements of the Tégláskert are under continuous improvement. Recently, a large-scale road improvement of the section of Tégláskert Street between Csordás and Vadász Streets was completed, which the city government carried out with HUF 40 million of its own funds.

Work has now started on the construction of an 850-metre-long, 1.5-metre-wide paved walkway along Dobogó Street between Kanális Street and Epreskert Street. Of this, 630 metres will be built by the municipality at a gross cost of around HUF 42 million, while the remaining 220 metres will be built by a developer of a housing estate to be built along Dobogó Street. 

The pavement will create a safe pedestrian link between the Tégláskert and Epreskert districts, making the latter’s shopping facilities more accessible for residents of the area. In addition, the pavement will be built in the form of a pedestrian walkway. These bus stops will be used in the future by the Airport 1 and 2 buses operated by DKV Zrt. All these improvements will improve the quality of life and comfort of the residents.

Zoltán Piros also mentioned that design work is underway for the solid surfacing of Varsa Street, Bádogos Street and Bádogos köz.

He also expressed the hope that a section of Basahalom Street, the westernmost street in the area, will be paved. In the future, the planned construction of an overpass on Vértesi Street will improve accessibility to Tégláskert, and the extension of Mandolás Street to Gázvezeték Street is also included in the government’s transport development investment plans for Debrecen.

Source and photo credit: debrecen.hu

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