Clooney joins Italian town development protest
US film star George Clooney has joined a protest to stop construction of car parks and a promenade in the northern Italian lakeside town where he owns a villa because he fears his presence is turning the quiet town into a tourist attraction.
Clooney was among some 300 townspeople who signed the petition against the planned construction in the town of Laglio on Lake Como, according to organisers.
“Yes I signed it. Almost every member of the town signed it,” Clooney said in an email to The Associated Press.
“My concern is that this village that has stood for hundreds of years would be destroyed simply because I happened to have lived there for the last six years. I told my neighbours that I would do what they wanted. And it seemed that they didn’t want to demolish the harbour where all the local fishermen keep their boats,” Clooney said.
Clooney said the petition appeared to have had the desired effect, and that the mayor had announced that at least some of the plans – which opponents say would damage the environment as well as the 18th century old harbour – had been scrapped.
Tourism to the town has increased since Clooney moved to the area.
Calls to the mayor’s office in the Laglio City Hall were not immediately returned, but the head of the committee leading the protest said only part of the project, to cost £9.5m, had been cancelled.
Committee chair Manuela Nuti said she did not immediately know what parts of the project remained. She praised Clooney’s participation in the protest, saying it was of “extraordinary importance for the cause”.
“He always keeps himself informed of things that happen in town,” Nuti said.
