With a short week left for the start of the rally tomorrow Thursday in Umeå, Rans Sami village appealed the permits for three of the routes.
– Per today’s date is reindeer on two of the three routes mentioned, wrote Sami village chair Silja Jonsson Marklund in the appeal.
The Sami village’s appeal of the County Administrative Board’s decision to give green light for the World Cup rally was then submitted to the Swedish Transport Agency for a decision.
3000 pages to go through
The distances that Rans Sami village primarily want the permits to be lifted for were Umeå Lång, Västervik and Vännäs. For the Transport Board, there were many days with over 3000 pages of material to go through before a decision could be made.
During the afternoon on Wednesday, the authority announced that they were not able to.
– We will probably not be able to announce decisions before the rally starts. The material in the case is very extensive and new information has also been received in the case that the Swedish Transport Agency had to exchange between interested parties, the investigator Magnus Sjönnebring tells SVT.
If the Swedish Transport Agency does not have time to announce a decision before the event starts, the County Administrative Board’s decision on a permit applies.
The transport routes also problematic
In its appeal, the Sami village described that it is not only the competition distances that are the problem, but also the transport routes.
In the alternative, the Sami village stated that the permit for the rally should be conditional. If reindeer husbandry is carried out near a competition, it must be canceled seven days before competition, a time limit that has already been passed.