The Calpe Town Council has approved this morning with the only votes in favour of the government team (Somos Calpe, PSOE and Compromís) the Calpe municipal budgets for 2024. This agreement has been adopted after rejecting the allegations and ten amendments presented by the PP municipal group to these municipal accounts.
The PP spokesman, César Sánchez, described the budgets as "without ambition" and pointed out that the two major investments planned, the high school and the J road, are from other institutions - from the Generalitat and the Diputación de Alicante, respectively - "which shows the lack of ambition of this government that lives on the inheritance and inertia of the PP budgets of recent years". And he insisted that they have presented these amendments to "help and improve these budgets", amendments which, he said, "respond to the real needs of our people".
The amendments, amounting to 300. 300,000 euros, proposed the drafting of the basic project and execution of a new municipal swimming pool, increase the allocation for the Employment Plan, implement a special direct bus line to the hospital in Denia, the taxi voucher for the movement of vulnerable groups to essential services within the municipality, expansion of the bike lane, the drafting of a basic project and execution of an athletics track, an increase in the subsidy for the Junta Mayor de Cofradías y Hermandades de la Semana Santa de Calpe, the setting up of a summer camp for people with special needs, aid to the Fishermen's Guild to pay for diesel and a plan to promote the Peix de Calpe and the white prawn, as well as the implementation of a Digitalisation Plan for SMEs and the self-employed.
On the other hand, the PP spokesman criticised the urgency with which the plenary session was convened, in which the councillors of Defend Calpe were not present.
The Compromís councillor, Mireia Ripoll, reproached Sánchez and other members of the government team for the fact that the plenary session was held because of the PP's presentation of these allegations. Otherwise, the municipal accounts would have been definitively approved. He pointed out that these amendments "totally reform this budget which has been agreed and studied a lot" and did not hesitate to describe them as a "letter to the Three Wise Men". However, he indicated that they would study them and has not ruled out that some of them could be conducted through the treasury surplus if the governing board so decides.
For his part, the spokesman for the municipal socialist group, Guillermo Sendra, said that the amendments "are not very serious" and that the only aim of presenting them, as he pointed out, is for the spokesman of the Partido Popular "to have his five minutes of glory" in front of the media and social networks.
The spokesman for Somos Calpe, Juan Manuel del Pino, stressed that the government team is open to listen to the contributions of the opposition and has reproached Sanchez that: "all your proposals could have been discussed before, could have been negotiated, but you cannot when a few days before the end of the deadline for allegations you present these proposals.
The mayoress Ana Sala insisted that the holding of the plenary session "was provoked by the PP" and that it had to be held urgently so that the municipal budgets could be definitively approved before the end of the year, as established by law, bearing in mind that the deadline for the presentation of allegations ended on 26 December. And he described the budget for 2024 as "solvent, responsible and transparent and that solves to a large extent the problems that Calpe has at the moment".
The Local Government approves the municipal budget for 2024, which amounts to 46,962,815 euros.