The Calpe Town Council initially approved in yesterday's plenary session the project of the Calpe Public Transport Service, a project that will substantially improve the urban bus transport and which is the result of the online survey conducted to find out the needs of citizens in relation to public transport in the municipality.
The project, promoted by the Department of the Environment in coordination with other departments, is in its initial phase, with a period of 20 working days for the presentation of allegations, after which the service will be put out to tender. The information gathered has made it possible to draw up a diagnosis of the current state of the service and an initial project which contemplates three bus lines: one which is based on the current line between the railway station and the beach area but with a frequency of 15 minutes, compared to the 60 minutes of the current line, a second line which serves the urbanizaciones (residential areas) in the eastern part of the municipality (Benicolada, Vallesa, Merced, Casa Nova, Ràfol and Pla Roig) and arrives at the railway station with a frequency of 60 minutes and a third line for the urbanizaciones Maryvilla, Canuta, Puerto Blanco which would operate only in summer with a frequency of 40 minutes.
The first line would run with a city bus and the other two with minibuses. The three lines would be coordinated with each other and would stop at the health centre and the railway station. According to the project, the City Council would pay €305,000 per year to the concessionaire to make the service viable, which could be awarded for a period of 10 years. It is also estimated that the ticket price on any of the lines would be €1.50 with the possibility of discounts.
The spokesman for Defend Calpe, Paco Quiles, said at this point that "the public transport service is very improvable and we will present suggestions to improve it, I would like to clarify that 10 years seems a long time for a contract, we should review whether the service is profitable in that period the City Council should pay less, it is desirable that the amount paid by the City Council is reviewable to make it viable".
The PP spokesman, César Sánchez, stressed that "the popular group values positively that public transport is improved because it is essential but the project is confusing, it is a project not a tender document, we think that it will be followed by an administrative document in which we will be able to give our opinion in more depth". For his part, Environment Councillor Juan Manuel del Pino thanked all the groups for their willingness to help, and emphasised the consensus on the need to improve the service.
ACCIONA invoices
One of the points of conflict was the resolution of the omission formulated by the intervention and the payment of invoices to Acciona for services performed in the previous contract in relation to the transport of rubbish. The spokesman for Defend Calpe, Paco Quiles, indicated that "this is an expense of 1.5 million euros which does not follow the ordinary spending procedure, we cannot tiptoe around an invoice like this without a market price report".
The RSU and Street Cleaning Councilor, Juan Manuel del Pino, responded to Quiles by pointing out that "you are always sowing doubts, insinuating that the procedure is not being followed. The new contract has just been awarded and the invoices are for services rendered outside of the contract, it has not been possible to make the payments in the usual way, which is why they are coming to the plenary, they are invoices which have been revised and updated by the technicians".
Ximo Perles, councillor for contracting, added that "they always sow the doubt that there is overpayment, it seems that there is no control and that is not the case. We agree that the situation is undesirable, but their proposed solution is conspicuous by its absence. The PP spokesman, César Sánchez, has demanded "that as soon as possible the town is in the best conditions, there are broken and overflowing containers, especially with the pruning in the urbanizaciones, the people of Calpe deserve their streets to be clean".
Public Holidays 2024
The plenary approved as local holidays for next year on Monday 5 August, the feast of the patron saint, the Virgen de las Nieves, and Tuesday 22 October, the feast of the patron saint, the Cristo del Sudor. In this regard, the spokesman for Compromís, Ximo Perles, said that "from Compromís we have always argued that the non-working day should be next to the weekend, it is necessary to make a decision to group the holidays, but we understand that the decision should be postponed until there is consensus".
Creation of a new part-time councillor
Also approved was the creation of a new part-time councillor, Mireia Ripoll, who will occupy a part-time position of 80%. In addition, an amendment was tabled to extinguish two 50% part-time positions because they are not occupied.