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Local Round-Up: Copenhagen’s mayor expects local businesses to receive compensation

Luke Roberts
December 8th, 2020


This article is more than 4 years old.

In other parts of the city, local authorities lose out at court over bins and the capital braces itself for a noisy few decades

Smaller trade businesses are having a hard time in Copenhagen (photo: pikist.com)

The announcement of new restrictions has once again plunged many businesses back into uncertainty after an already difficult year.

However, staff and owners alike can sleep somewhat more soundly now that Copenhagen’s mayor has announced he is confident the city will receive the same support package offered to the North Jutland municipalities during their lockdown a month ago.

Support is at hand
“I have no words for how bad I think this is for businesses in Copenhagen. Cultural venues, restaurants, cafés and taxi drivers had already prepared themselves for a quiet Christmas month, but are now looking at total closure,” said Mayor Lars Weiss.

Whilst nothing has been finalised yet, Weiss is confident that businesses will get the support they need and that the government will negotiate a wage compensation scheme for the many employees affected.

Left with no alternative
Whilst sympathetic to the hardships restrictions will bring, the mayor was unequivocal in his assertion that it was the right thing to do.

“There is no way around it. In the coming weeks, you will have to content yourself with being together with just a few people – and preferably the same ones. After that, you will have to all be tested together,” he confirmed.

The new lockdown is a result of a recent rise in infection rates – especially among young people in Copenhagen.


Noisy years ahead in the capital
When the new island district of Lynetteholm is completed in 2070 it will mark a new era in the city’s history. Beforehand, however, residents should get ready for some noise. That is the news from a new report outlining the environmental impact of the project released last week. In particular, those in Refshaleøen and Nordhavn are most likely to notice disruption when construction begins next year.

2020’s Disability Award winner announced
Pia Finne, the project manager at the Center for Selvstændig Bolig og Beskæftigelse, has been crowned this year’s winner of the Disability Award. The award was presented by the city’s social mayor, Mia Nyegaard, and Steen Stavngaard from the Disability Council. Describing why he had been given the award, Nyegaard described her as someone who always shows great interest in the citizens and employees she surrounds herself with.

Municipality loses bin case
The Supreme Court has ruled in favour of a small business owner regarding a commercial waste fee charged by the City of Copenhagen, meaning the municipality must now pay back the 937 kroner and 50 øre charged to Thomas Gønge. The case concerns an administration fee for commercial waste that was charged to traders regardless of whether or not they used the municipality’s waste scheme.

Konservative block city park plans
Tivoli has long had plans to build a new public park on Vesterbrogade, but some hurdles lie in its way. Konservative has blocked the plans on the grounds that the new park would mean the redirecting of 64 buses a day down a much narrower road used by up to 15,000 cyclists a day. Instead, it proposes rotating the site 90 degrees over Axeltorv – it is a plan that the technology and environment mayor, Ninna Hedeager Olsen, rejects.

Hjørringgade tower wins award
Charlottetårnet – a zinc-clad, Jenga-shaped building on Hjørringgade – was last week awarded a diploma for excellent architecture by Hovedstadens Forskønnelse. The 56 metre-high structure’s lift lies outside the building, partly in order to save space and adhere to restrictions on high-rises in Copenhagen.


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”