Salo council reapproves West Railway project decisions

Salo City Council has again approved a shareholder agreement for the Länsirata, or West Railway, project and rejected a proposed municipal referendum on the railway. Yle reported that the council repeated decisions previously overturned by an administrative court.

The council approved the agreement for the construction phase of the railway project, led by project company Länsirata Oy, by 29 votes to 22. It voted 32 to 19 against holding a referendum.

The council had made the same decisions once before, but the Turku Administrative Court overturned them. The court said councillors had been improperly excluded from deliberations on both matters. A Salo shareholders’ association appealed the referendum decision, while an individual appealed the other decision.

Before the agreement was considered, councillor Asko Määttänen of the Centre Party asked the council to decide separately whether he was disqualified. The city government had decided on October 26 to appeal the administrative court’s rulings to the Supreme Administrative Court. The council unanimously ruled that Määttänen was not disqualified, in line with the administrative court’s decision.