The plenary session of Calpe Town Council has approved with the votes in favour of the government team (Somos Calpe, PSOE and Compromís) and the abstention of the opposition (PP and Defendamos Calpe) the urban-forestal cartography of the municipality, a requirement demanded by a legislative decree of the Generalitat to prevent forest fires. The mapping "establishes a safety strip between urban areas and forest space" in the municipality of Calpe, according to the councillor of Somos Calpe spokesman and town planning councillor, Juan Manuel del Pino, "to prevent fires or, if they do occur, to prevent their spread".
The legislative decree 1/2021 of 18 June of the Consell establishes that the town councils of municipalities with forest land must identify and cartographically delimit any urbanisation, population centre, building or installation susceptible to the risk of forest fire because they are located on forest land or in a forest influence zone. The regulation also states that this mapping should delimit a perimeter protection strip of at least 30 metres wide.
The spokesman for Defendamos Calpee, Paco Quiles, demanded that the government team explain to the public what the approval of this mapping implies and criticised the fact that it obliges a 30-metre strip to be created by cutting down trees. "We are going to abstain because it is barbaric. We have to explain to the people everything that has to be cut down, we have to explain what is going to happen," he said. He also indicated that "the owners of the population centres or communities of owners bordering the forest masses have to take responsibility for this, they have to pay for it, that has to be said" and added that the law establishes a period of six months to carry out the planned actions.
For his part, the spokesman for the Popular group, César Sánchez, expressed the support of his municipal group for all the proposals and investments of the government team in the fight against forest fires, an "extremely important issue, especially in the area of Oltà, on the border with Benissa, which is a hot area, especially with the drought situation we are experiencing". However, he pointed out that as the point was going to go ahead with the votes of the government team, the popular municipal group would abstain, following the position it has maintained since the beginning of the legislature.
The spokesman for the government team, Ximo Perles, and spokesman for Compromís, denied Quiles and explained that the 30-metre strip to be created in the perimeter between urban and forestry areas will be in accordance with the new forestry regulations which allow the planting of species which are not as flammable as pine trees or vines. "The new regulations don't say that they are to be cut down to create a buffer zone between urban land and forest, but allow firebreaks with dry crops," said Perles.
Juan Manuel del Pino pointed out that it is an "ambitious" plan and acknowledged the difficulty of putting it into practice, although he added in line with Ximo Perles: "there are ways of approaching the issue such as reforesting with species that are not so dangerous to the spread of fire". And addressing the Defendamos Calpe spokesman, he said: "it is a legislative decree that is above you, above me and above all those present, we just have to abide by it and comply with what the law says".