The Bełchatów County is situated in the center of Poland, in the Łódź Province, 150 km from Warsaw, 186 km from Wrocław and 550 km from Berlin. Almost 119 thousand people live in the area of 971 sq km of our county. The Bełchatów County includes two urban areas: Bełchatów and Zelów and six village communes: Druźbice, Bełchatów, Kleszczów, Kluki, Szczerców and Rusiec. The Bełchatów County is characterized by big forests and a number of water reservoirs, which offers good conditions for going in for tourism and for organizing it. Agro tourism farms use the beauty of nature successfully. Well-marked walking paths and bicycle paths are conductive to tourism. Holiday camps and luxurious hotels are visited eagerly also by business people and training groups. "The Bełchatów County - the mine of possibilities for energetic people". One of our promotional watchwords reads like this since the mining industry and power industry dominate in the county economic life. The view on the strip mine is an unquestionable attraction, where an "enormous black hole" can be seen very clearly, and where huge power units also command respect. Windmills are soon going to appear in our scenery in connection with the first-in-central-Poland wind power plant complex which is going to be built here. Small and medium construction, textile, food and trade business firms are also of a great importance. The project to start an industry-and-technology complex with partners such as the Bełchatów Town, the Kleszczów Commune, the "Kopalnia Węgla Brunatnego Bełchatów S.A." mine, the "Elektrownia Bełchatów S.A." power plant, Łódź Technical University, and the "RWE" German concern is a good example of local communities' activities for local economic development. Fully-developed and many-hectare industrial areas offered to potential investors by the Kleszczów Commune are another equally interesting idea. Bełchatów is a town of young people - 40 per cent of its inhabitants are under 25 years of age.

Where there is a lot of youth, there is a lot of fun and entertainment. Bełchatów is a town rich with pubs, restaurants, and discos. The local authorities' efforts to make the place more attractive for young inhabitants resulted in gaining the "The County Friendly For Children" UNICEF honorary title in 2002. Cultural centres and libraries in the whole county are trying to be up to the inhabitants' expectations. The institutions financed by the town and county board predominate on the map of the Bełchatów county culture. The mine and power plant are also a reputable organizers of the inhabitants' leisure time, which at "Wawrzkowizna" and "Słok" - their leisure centres - offer excellent facilities and organize many concerts. Non-government, church and other organizations also help to organize cultural events.

The Regional Museum in Bełchatów successfully saves our ancestors' heritage from oblivion, passes on good examples to the youngest, and teaches the appreciation of art. The museum is housed by the Olszewski family country manor, which is one of the most impressive buildings of the old Bełchatów.

The county is planning to renovate the historic palace-and-park complex and use it for cultural, ecological and European educational needs and also for integration of the local community, and for raising the county tourism attractiveness. The spacious and modern interiors of the county library encourage people to use its big book collection. Meetings of poets, art exhibitions and photo galleries are held in the library building.

The Municipal Culture Centre in Bełchatów has been organizing the "Kadr - Nationwide Amateur Video Film Festival", the only-in-the-country festival, the "Szanty" Nationwide Music Festival for many years, and also the Autumn Theatre Meetings, at which alternative theatre groups both from Poland and abroad give performances. The Bełchatów Amateur Theatre (BAT) existing for more than ten years is also a showcase of the Municipal Culture Centre. The Summer Festival Concerts held in Zelów have a lasting position on the map of Poland. Opera singers and rarely played instruments virtuosos, such as the glass harp, Scottish bagpipes, and Alpine horn, take part in them. Zelów and the local culture centre are also known among literary figures of our country for the International Literary Comparisons. A number of culture-related events are held on the initiative or with a help of the county starosty, among others: artistic activities reviews, music festivals, county harvest festivals, and individual artists' exhibitions. The Bełchatów City Office annually organizes the Bełchatów Days festival with a rich programme of culture events.

In the summer of 2003 in Bełchatów the "Meeting of Styles" International Graffiti Art Festival was held. More than five hundred square metres of walls in the centre of Bełchatów were painted by masters of this unusual form of artistic expression.

The Schola Cantorum choir is the culture ambassador of our county. The children and young people singing gospel songs in many European languages are invited to concerts and festivals in our country and also abroad.

A good sports base guarantees successful active relaxation, and also permits achieving good results at sports competitions abroad. The sports infrastructure for the county inhabitants is located in Bełchatów. In the country regions we have gymnastic halls and pitches. In the county town we have a full-sized gymnastic hall which is full of young people and practicing players from morning to evening. The complement of the sports complex is swimming pools: one covered and one open-air.

The "GKS Bełchatów" second-league football team train at a modern stadium. "Skra" is another leading Bełchatów team assembling volleyball players and swimmers.

Sports activities in Bełchatów are concentrated around the most popular disciplines: football, volleyball, and cycling. Bełchatów is the organizer of many nationwide and regional races and championships.

Athletics also has a high position on the sports map of the county. The Bełchatów Athletics Club cooperates intensively with the school youth.

At the "Słok" and "Wawrzkowizna" Sport and Recreation Centres situated a few kilometers out of Bełchatów there are man-made lakes which permit practising water sports, including sailing. The lake at "Słok" has been the place to hold the nationwide and worldwide motor water championships and model boats championships for many times.

All the communes included in the Bełchatów county can n pride themselves with a big sports activity of the youngest inhabitants. The Olympiad for Disabled held in Szczerców with the participants from a few European countries was a sensation on the whole region and even country scale. In the Kleszczów commune there are a number of sports facilities at which various kinds of championships and sports tests are held. The sports base also includes a stadium, football pitches built in every village and gymnastic halls next to schools. The complement for this sports base is going to be a recreational and sports complex at a hotel building with a covered swimming pool, pitches for team games, miniature golf, indoor climbing wall, bowling alley, etc.

The reclaimed dumping grounds created during the stripping of coal beds make good conditions to organize skiing infrastructure. The mine as an investor is planning its start in 2004.

The plans of the starosty also include building of an 18-hectare sports and leisure complex sited in Bełchatów in the vicinity of a grammar schools group where more than five thousand young people are taught. An athletics stadium with stands for two thousand spectators, handball, volleyball, basketball pitches, tennis courts, a sports hall, ice skating rink hall, floor skating rink, fitness trails, miniature golf, open-air bowling areas, and many play areas for children are planned to be built in the complex. At the complex there are also going to be shops, cafes, and car parks situated. Thus, the town and the county are going to have other sports facilities which are going to be the region showcase as the sports hall or the GKS stadium are.

A good base is conductive to active relaxation and good sports results of our inhabitants.

Throughout a year many events for people and specialist competitions are held. The County Olympic Games for Children and Youth is an event worth mentioning here, which is held every two years and is a test of sports abilities of more than three thousand young people.

Bełchatów is a town of young people - 40 per cent of its inhabitants are under 25 years of age. For them Łódź University and Łódź Technical University, and a number of private colleges have created places for studying. What is more, secondary education (grammar schools, technical colleges, vocational schools) ensures teaching the skills in professions required by the job market.

Ecology is among the Bełchatów County's priorities; however, extractive industry is strong here. The Bełchatów brown coal mine and the power plant have certificates stating that their production processes are environment-friendly.

The county local government has been running selective rubbish collecting for more than 4 years. White glass, coloured glass, plastic, and paper banks are situated throughout the county. Organic waste collecting is being done in Bełchatów as an experiment. In all the communes of our county there are segregated waste and large-size collecting sites equipped with necessary machinery.

The waste collecting system is run by the "Eko-Region" company, of which the Bełchatów County is a co-founder, and ten other counties, and also the Environment Protection Provincial Fund.

The county local government has done the thermo renovation process in almost all the county's buildings, which saves warmth and energy. The county has co-finansed a number of pro-ecology actions being the responsibilities of its communes. Thanks to this, new buildings have been built and are still being built which are used for environment protection actions, among them sewage treatment plants, sewage systems, water-pipe networks, and parks. It is not possible not to acknowledge the worth of ecological education, which is done by the Regional Centre for Ecological Education established by the county local government. The actions mentioned here and the results achieved would have been feasible without the commitment of the county's inhabitants.