Bicycle ring road for Basel - New sponsoring regulations for University of Basel - Basel-Land to close police stations - Foreigners in Switzerland surpass 2 million mark

News For 30 August 2016

Basel is aiming to build a ring road for bicycles. The road would connect residential areas, railway stations, workplaces, schools and sports facilities.

Basel's Grand Council has yet to approve the 25 million Swiss Francs needed for construction of the ring road. But Basel's local government supports the plans of the initiators, bicycle organization Pro Velo.

The new two-way ring road would make cycling in Basel even more attractive, the government stated. Cycling reduces the impact on the environment as well as the amount of traffic on the city's roads.

If the initiative is approved, the ring road would be constructed between 2018 and 2025.

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The University of Basel has new regulations for handling donations and sponsorship. This is to ensure that financial support from private parties does not lead to a bias in research and teaching.

In particular, the regulations prescribe that donors cannot be included in appointing new professors. Direct payments to members of the university are also forbidden. Donors can use research results only if they have a written agreement.

The University is also committed to investigating the origin of any funds and to disclosing relevant contracts.

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Basel-Land's police management is considering closing up to seven of its police stations. This could increase the number of patrols by over 20 percent. A high police presence in the streets is more effective than a large network of police stations, police management said.

Management is looking at possible closures in Aesch, Arlesheim, Münchenstein, Birsfelden, Bubendorf, Gelterkinden and Waldenburg. The distance between some of these police stations is only a few kilometers, and these stations all have relatively few incidents and deployments per day.

There is no current estimate on the savings to be made from the closure of the police stations, but job cuts are not being planned.

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For the first time, there are now more than two million foreigners living in Switzerland, according to new figures released on Thursday last week.

In 2015, there were 2'048'700 foreign nationals with permanent residency in the country, just under a quarter of the total population, said the Swiss statistics office. That's up from 1'998'500 in 2014.

Geneva has the highest number of foreigners, at 41 percent, followed by the cantons of Basel-City with 35 percent and Vaud with 34 percent.