Calpe (13-11-2024) - The plenary session of the Calp Town Council has approved with the only votes in favour of the government team (Somos Calpe - PSOE - Compromís) to start the process to declassify the Garduix I and II, Pla Feliu I and II and Ràfol I sectors and II to reclassify them as endowment land. Defendamos Calpe voted against and the PP abstained.
The aim of the government team is to preserve the last green lung that exists in the municipality of Calpe, an area of 300,000 m² contemplated in the PGOU of 1998 as developable to use it as a sports, educational, recreational or cultural endowment. To this end, the council intends to acquire the land by compensating the owners through expropriation.
The proposal has been the subject of intense debate between the different municipal groups.
Defendamos Calpe councillor Toni Tur explained that his party is in favour of declassifying the land at zero cost, i.e. to rustic land and not for use as a public use site, and that there was a report supporting this option. And he has accused the councillor for Territorial Planning, Juan Manuel del Pino, of changing his opinion on this matter. ‘He understands that in a case where the budgets and the economy of our municipality are going to be compromised, we have reticence in the face of these changes of opinion’, he said.
For his part, the spokesman for the PP municipal group Miguel Crespo said that this proposal, which he described as ‘populist’, ‘reckless’ and ‘utopian’, ‘has no legal guarantee for our municipality’ and that ‘it could compromise our council as has happened in neighbouring municipalities such as Benidorm with the Serra Gelada land’. And he added that: ‘we consider it necessary to develop these six sectors with the preservation of green areas and the cultural heritage they contain as well as obtaining land for our municipality but always through urban development agreements with the owners to safeguard their rights’.
The spokesman for Somos Calpe and Territory councillor, Juan Manuel del Pino, pointed out that this proposal is the result of reflection by both the political powers and the citizens, who participated massively in the prior consultation process, and assured that it is backed by jurisprudence and, therefore, with legal certainty to carry it out. ‘We wanted to take advantage of the power of the public to act in the urban planning of our municipality, to give a design to our urban planning that serves the general good of our citizens and our environment’ and added that “the people of Calp will thank us for it”.
Guillermo Sendra, spokesman for the socialist municipal group, said: ‘We have taken a historic and courageous decision, and the best proof is that none of the previous councils have taken it’ and that it is ‘based on the necessary legal reports’. ‘It is a step forward in sustainable development, the biggest ever taken in Calp, with this measure we are going to safeguard this green lung. And he explained that if they were to remain as rustic land, they would remain in private hands and could not be enjoyed by the citizens of Calpe.
Compromís spokesman Ximo Perles explained that in the public consultation, this municipal group presented an environmental report commissioned to a private company so that it could objectively propose different options to protect this space and assess which was the most protectionist of them all. The report determined that ‘the greatest degree of protection was achieved by expropriation’, which is the option that was finally chosen. ‘It is the fairest option and the one that best protects the public interest. She added that she would like to think that future generations will come to believe that ‘politics is useful and that there was a corporation at the time that was not motivated by economic interests and that assumed the responsibility of making decisions with future generations in mind’.
The mayoress Ana Sala stressed that ‘the urban planning that we have in Calpe was decided 30 years ago, today after 30 years and seeing what we have, we have to make other decisions; we need sports and educational infrastructures, we have no land for infrastructure; we have the responsibility to make decisions that are best for the general interest’. In addition, he pointed out that ‘there is nothing at zero cost’ and that to date there are 14 million euros in land use units in Calp pending materialisation.
Cemetery Commission
The plenary session also approved the creation of a special commission to investigate exhumations carried out in the municipal cemetery without the consent of the legal heirs, following a new case detected recently. The agreement was adopted with the votes in favour of the government team and Defend Calpe and the abstention of the PP.
The commission will be made up of one councillor from each municipal group and chaired by the councillor responsible for the Eternal Rest Park, Marco Bittner, who has been delegated by the mayoress.
Quisi Ravine
Likewise, it was unanimously approved to request the Hydrographic Confederation of Júcar, the body responsible for the cleaning and naturalisation of public watercourses in the municipality of Calpe, especially the Quisi ravine. It is intended that the CHJ remove the Arundo Donax reeds, invasive species through the technique of solarisation - with black tarpaulins that reach a high temperature that kills the root of the plant - and then planting native species.