The plenary session of Calpe Town Council has unanimously approved a credit modification with a total of 3,735,389.38 euros, of which 3,265,389.38 euros will be used for the refurbishment of the plot where the prefabricated classrooms of the IES Ifac and the overflowing educational centres will be located.
This is a plot of 30,000 square metres of municipal land located behind the Silene de Ifac nursery school, which will be ceded to the council for a period of five years. The land is expected to be ready for the start of the 2025 - 2026 school year.
The mayoress Ana Sala, after an intense debate between the municipal groups, stressed that the Town Hall has done everything necessary to make the second school project a reality. "Nobody solves the problem, it is shameful, and I will complain to the current government, I also complained to the previous one and I will continue to fight for what this town needs". "Why do we have to undo what we have already done? We don't like the Pla Edificant? Well, let's change it for another system that the current government of the Generalitat likes. I can buy that, but at this point, after a great political and technical-financial effort, I don't buy it", and he asked that the Town Hall be allowed to put these much-needed infrastructures out to tender while the prefabricated ones are being installed.
In addition to this investment, this credit modification approved 300,000 euros for lighting for the fiestas, 110,000 euros for the cemetery and 60,000 euros for the fencing of the Saladar pet park.
Likewise, the plenary approved with the votes against Defend Calp and the abstention of the popular municipal group to initiate the expropriation of the old Oltra Galleries to give them a public use. This is the first basement floor of the Les Muralles building, located opposite the Town Hall of Calpe, which in 2007 (when Javier Morató was mayor) through a specific modification of the PGOU became a public use with the aim of providing the municipality with a space for young people and associations at that time.
The project was paralysed during the following three legislatures and was taken up again in 2019, when the councillor for Urban Planning Juan Manuel del Pino began to maintain contact with all the owners in order to reach a mutually agreed expropriation. Although he pointed out that the use to which it will be put has not been defined, the possibility has been considered of using it as a space for youth or associations, or even for municipal offices.
The spokesman for Defend Calp, Paco Quiles, criticised the Town Hall for expropriating these premises without having a defined project for them and without knowing how much it will cost to adapt them. He added that "it is neither fair nor objective" that these facilities were chosen at the time to be private facilities and not others.
The spokesman for the popular group, César Sánchez, also stressed the importance of knowing the use that this space will have and suggested that a list of the municipality's private facilities be drawn up "to know what spaces we can count on and consequently to know if another private facility could have been used".
The spokesman for the socialist municipal group, Guillermo Sendra, for his part, indicated that there is a high demand from associations for premises in which to meet and hold their activities, and highlighted the suitability of the location of these galleries, opposite the Town Hall, on Ifach Avenue, "This will allow us to bring together certain groups in the administrative centre of Calpe", he said, following the recent relocation of the banks that were located in this area to other commercial areas of the municipality.
The spokesman for Compromís, Ximo Perles, stated that: "the existence of private land is an anomaly in the PGOU, it is not something I like" and pointed out that the fact that it is private land is in itself an objective criterion for carrying out the expropriation. In this sense, he recalled that the owners of this type of land even have the right to request the expropriation if it is not initiated ex officio by the Town Hall.
PP motion
On the other hand, a motion presented by the PP municipal group was unanimously approved for Calpe Town Council to adhere to the Framework Agreement of collaboration between the Generalitat and the FVMP for the mobilisation of existing public land to be used for the promotion and construction of public housing.
The agreement also includes that the municipal technical services carry out the study and modification, if necessary, of the qualification of the municipal plots of land that can be transferred to the Valencian Housing and Land Entity