Newcomers to Denmark are often surprised by how welcoming the authorities are – provided that it is within the rules.
Local administrators take public concerns seriously – often coming up with solutions to ensure the same problems don’t happen again in the future.
Whether it’s quickly adjusting a troublesome stretch of newly installed bike lane or arranging parking for bikes or even dogs outside a suddenly popular meeting place, authorities take pride in responding quickly to residents’ concerns.
Such a development recently took place within the framework of Copenhagen Municipality after an outcry on Facebook over the drowning of a fox in one of the capital’s famous lakes.
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Concerns via Facebook
A picture of the dead animal that fell into Sortedams Sø on Østerbro and simply couldn’t get out again because of the steep access got 322 reactions on April 12 and 71 reactions on Facebook, with many suggesting that stairs or ledges would have enabled it to escape.
In the local Facebook group It happens at ØsterbroConcerned member Charlotte Andreasen described the incident as a “tragedy because we have created an artificially bounded lake that does not allow animals to escape if they fall in”.
Other commentators questioned whether the same could happen to a child.
12 anderamps will be installed
The concerns of a few hundred people expressed on a local Facebook group may sound like a minor ripple, but the message quickly reached the Engineering and Environmental Administration, City Hall’s engineering and environmental management, and it has already confirmed that they will take action.
It is intended to install 12 ‘duck ramps’: eight in Sortedams Sø, which is divided into two parts at Fredensgade, and four in the adjacent Peblinge Sø.
“It is completely understandable that it can seem grotesque when, for example, a fox drowns,” unit head of the Technical and Environmental Administration. Jakob Tamsmark told Kobenhavnliv.dk.
But it doesn’t sound like he’s convinced.
“Unfortunately, it is probably impossible to completely avoid it as it is doubtful that the ramps would have made a difference in this situation as the lakes have a long circumference,” he added.
The post Fox in the quay: Proof that Danish society really looks after its weakest members, first appeared on Københavns Post.
Source: The Nordic Page