Photo: Anna Qncheva’s Facebook profile
By order dated July 30, the deputy mayor of Smolyan, Maria Tsekova, introduced strict restrictions on car access to the television tower on Snezhanka Peak. From August 1 to September 15, every day from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., car traffic is suspended, and parking along the entire road is completely prohibited. Exceptions to Tsekova’s order are allowed only for specialized vehicles and those with a permit, the local administration in Smolyan issued. However, the sign posted on the spot lacks the mandatory specification for the time period of the restriction, which according to the law means that the road is blocked around the clock, an on-site inspection found. There is also no announcement about the ban. This confused many tourists today and put them in an absurd situation – they did not know that half of the road was closed.
The place of the ban – convenient for some, fatal for others
The location of the prohibitory road sign B2 (closed to traffic in both directions, editor’s note) appears to have been purposefully chosen. The barrier is located immediately after several roadside establishments that remain freely accessible to visitors.
“This is complete absurdity! The whole road is the same width. Why am I being stopped here?”
one of the drivers was indignant.
The shadow of lobbying and the price of 24 leva
The ban forces tourists to use the chairlift of Pamporovo AD, which remains the only alternative for quick access to Snezhanka Peak. The price for a round-trip ticket per person is 24 leva. A man and his wife said that they had heard about the ban and therefore left their car at the Pamporovo bus station. The two of them paid 24 leva each, and at an intermediate station – another 24 leva. The climb to the tower cost them nearly 100 leva. “We will return on foot,” said the man. Everyone can see whose interests this order serves.”
Who wins, who loses
The losers are local businesses, seasonal workers and tourists who cannot or do not want to pay dearly for a lift, as well as those for whom getting around by it is impossible – small children, the elderly, the disabled. The reputation of the Pamporovo resort is also suffering.
The winners seem to be few: the owner of the lift – Pamporovo AD and those merchants whose establishments are located before the no-car sign on the road to the tower on Snezhanka Peak.
All of this is bad news for tourism, free competition, and even worse for the sense of fairness.
Inconsistencies and outright incompetence
Even a cursory analysis reveals serious shortcomings and incompetence in the drafting of the scandalous order. In it, Tsekova refers to the long-repealed Ordinance of 2001, instead of the current one from 2022, which requires prior coordination of projects with the Ministry of Interior. Such coordination is missing. There is no approved project for the organization of traffic, prepared in accordance with the current regulatory requirements.
The invented “urgency”
In her reasoning, Deputy Mayor Tsekova uses Art. 73 of the Administrative Procedure Code – “urgency” and “large number of tourists” – obviously to avoid the mandatory public discussion. But she does not present any evidence of the need for urgent measures – there is no traffic data, information about incidents or risks.
According to unofficial statistics, for the last ten years, not a single incident has been registered on this road. When asked by a reporter whether it was true that there were many tourists this year, the tenant of the TV tower restaurant Matey Mateev said: “Nothing like that. This year there are many times fewer than last year.”
Closed access to a national site
The law obliges the municipality of Smolyan to first implement lighter and adequate measures, such as speed limits or intervals for passing. Instead, there is an extreme and unjustified ban, and this in the height of the season. Peak Snezhanka is part of the 100 national tourist sites of the Bulgarian Tourist Union. It is unacceptable that this particular site should be inaccessible to children, the elderly and people with disabilities who cannot use the lift, even if they want to. They are practically left without the opportunity to visit the emblematic tower.
Today, a police patrol was on the spot near the sign watching for violators. When I asked if there was a police officer at every sign, they clarified that they responded to a 112 call that the ban was being violated and they were obliged to respond.
