Ra'anana City Council scraps entrance fee for municipal park - Haaretz

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Thu., September 06, 2007 Elul 23, 5767

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Last update - 06:20 05/09/2007

Ra'anana City Council scraps entrance fee for municipal park

By Zafrir Rinat, Haaretz Correspondent

As of this past week, weekend visitors to Ra'anana's municipal park are no longer required to pay entrance fees to the city's largest park. Environmental organizations, whose efforts brought about the change, consider it a significant triumph. The municipality, however, warns that that the taxpayer will ultimately have to foot the bill.

The municipality decided to open the gates after the Knesset amended the Municipalities Law last month, forbidding local authorities from charging entrance fees at public parks. The driving force behind the amendment was the "green" lobby at the Knesset.

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parate from the lobby's efforts, the High Court of Justice recently reviewed a petition on the matter that the Israel Union for Environmental Defense (IUED) filed two years ago. The court did not forbid the municipality from charging entrance fees, but determined that there was a need to set criteria for charging fees at municipal parks.

The IUED argued that the city council had no right to charge entrance fees from non-residents on weekends, as the city had been doing. The organization alleged that to do so would be to deprive the public of its right to enjoy public resources.

The city, meanwhile, argued that it needed to charge entrance fees to fund the park's maintenance. Otherwise, the city said, the Ra'anana taxpayers would bear the costs.

The City of Ra'anana's legal adviser, attorney Daphna Keinan, said that it was "doubtful whether the city could maintain the park as it had until now. The ban against charging entrance fees will diminish the city's ability to keep the park so uniquely beautiful and well protected."

The IUED and the environmental lobby are now aiming to achieve the same result for municipal beaches and other parks throughout the country.

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1.	Raanana spends money maintaining the park so why can`t they	08:09	\|	Gabriel	05/09/07

2.	the real reason they charge entrance fees	08:39	\|	SJ	05/09/07

3.	Too much pressure oon this patch of green	08:59	\|	Eli Baekan	05/09/07

4.	Charging for public resources @1	09:01	\|	David	05/09/07

5.	To SJ from Tel Aviv	09:29	\|	Valerie Fisher	05/09/07

6.	What nonsense #`s 1&2	09:46	\|	S	05/09/07

7.	Keeping Arabs out	10:02	\|	Charles Star	05/09/07

8.	Nos. 2 & 3	11:20	\|	Michael	05/09/07

9.	Why can they charge for beach access?	11:24	\|	Israelit	05/09/07

10.	Raanana has to do what other cities have to do.	21:57	\|	Donna s	06/09/07

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