Mokpo City Council Faces Controversy Over Budget Cut for Mokpo Bridge Landscape Lighting Special Project

Old Downtown Residents Hold Responsible for National Road Budget Cuts

The Mokpo Bridge Scenic Lighting Installation Countermeasure Committee, composed of chairpersons of the resident autonomy committees from 23 neighborhoods in Mokpo City, issued a statement on the 18th holding the city council responsible for the budget cut of the national and provincial funds for the Mokpo Bridge Scenic Lighting Special Project.

The committee expressed anger and disappointment, stating, "The city council recently cut 4.287 billion KRW from the budget for the Mokpo Bridge scenic lighting project during budget meetings, causing the plan to enhance and beautifully illuminate the aging night view of the old downtown Mokpo Bridge to be ignored by the residents."

The Mokpo Bridge Landscape Lighting Installation Countermeasure Committee, composed of the chairpersons of the residents' autonomy committees from 23 neighborhoods in Mokpo City, is issuing a statement in front of the Mokpo City Council holding them accountable for the cut in the national and local government budget for the Mokpo Bridge Landscape Lighting Special Project.
[Photo by Reader]

They criticized, "We have continuously made efforts to develop Mokpo Bridge as a tourism hub of Mokpo City, but these efforts are being disregarded due to the budget cut decision for the scenic lighting project."

They added, "We hope the council returns to its original role of legislative activity for the citizens and works together with them to develop Mokpo City's tourism industry," and said, "The night view of Mokpo Bridge is now 12 years old, simple, with some lights out here and there, turning into a patchwork, making new changes urgently needed."

In particular, they pointed out, "Since 2018, as part of the Tourism Hub City Development Project, we have been proposing to government ministries and repeatedly making efforts, and recently managed to finalize changes with difficulty," and said, "We intended to promptly proceed with the project within the Tourism Hub City project period by first allocating national and provincial funds secured through the project, but the city council's obstruction has blocked this."

They lamented, "The Mokpo City Council's refusal to allocate national and provincial budgets citing the need for city matching funds for the Tourism Hub City project is nothing but a 'stubborn legislative act' that pours cold water on tourism development," and added, "If improvements are not made in this Tourism Hub City project, Mokpo City's tourism image may be damaged for years to come by a patchy night view."

The committee urged, "We hope this opportunity will lead the Mokpo City Council to be reborn as a council for the citizens," and requested, "We ask that a prompt countermeasure be prepared for the Mokpo Bridge scenic lighting project and that all possible methods be explored to ensure the project proceeds quickly."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.