The plenary session of the Calpe Town Council yesterday approved the rules for the granting of subsidies for the promotion of sports that focus on grassroots sport, the promotion of inclusive sport and the promotion of equality in local sport. These grants for local sports entities aim to value the economic effort of clubs and entities in the promotion of grassroots sport with an emphasis on a higher quality of training activities. The aim is to ensure that public funds have a direct impact both on the quality of the service provided by the clubs and on the reduction of the fees paid by users for the cost of the service.
In addition, the amount earmarked for local sports (pigeon fancying and “Valencian pelota”) is increased and recognises, by means of economic incentives, the application of family allowances for sports entities.
Two lines of subsidies are maintained, line 1 for the promotion of grassroots sport and participation in official competitions and line 2 for the organisation of sporting events. Line 1 will finance the expenses derived from the promotion of local grassroots sport corresponding to the training activity itself, excluding expenses corresponding to any senior team or competition.
Eligible expenses are understood to be federation expenses, refereeing expenses, judges and timekeepers, travel expenses in collective transport, accommodation expenses in official competitions, expenses derived from hiring sports monitors, trainers, physical trainers and/or physiotherapists, sports material expenses, training material or pharmacy, administration expenses, etc.
Special recognition will be given to the efforts of sports organisations to promote gender equality and inclusive sport. The rules will come into force next season. The sports councillor, Ximo Perles, thanked "all the clubs and cultural entities for their efforts in developing a competence that is not specifically theirs in an altruistic and generous way".
Transfer of land for educational centres
Another of the points of the plenary session was the approval of the temporary transfer for a period of 5 years of the use of about 30,000m2 of land to the Department of Education for the location of temporary educational facilities to accommodate the demand for schooling in the municipality.
The period of cession is 5 years because that is what the legislation determines, once ceded the City Council will invest about three million euros in the adaptation of the land and the installation of water supply, electricity and sewerage. The adaptation project is currently being drawn up and the works will then be put out to tender, and once completed, the Council will move the modules.
Ana Sala pointed out that "we are fulfilling the commitments we made to the school community a few weeks ago, we have already ceded 30,000 metres for the new IES and now another 30,000 metres for the section, the Conselleria has yet to speed up the projects for the new IES and the CEE Gargasindi".
Toni Tur, of Defendamos Calpe, accused the local government of not foreseeing such important issues as educational facilities and allocating the remainder to projects such as schools, "the educational collapse has been going on for many years because the educational needs of the municipality have never been met".
The spokesman for the Partido Popular, Paco Fernández, announced his party's vote in favour, stating that "we think the transfer of the land is positive and we ask for maximum speed in the development of the land, here we have to go all together because it is a matter of common interest, so that Calpe has an educational infrastructure sized to its population, we will talk to whoever is needed".
Guillermo Sendra, socialist councillor, stressed "we have a serious problem of educational emergency that has been generated by Conselleria, not by this Corporation, now we have to solve the problem and we cannot do it faster, we have sought immediate solutions.
Ximo Perles stated that "I think it is a failure of education policy, they are asking us for land to create schools that are not even planned, such as the fourth school, there is no plan to build a permanent school, what I demand is that the planning of the new school and the new IES begins and that the prefabricated buildings are really temporary".
At this point, Juan Manuel del Pino, councillor for Territory and Urbanism wanted to emphasize that "Calpe Town Hall has not only ceded 30,000m2 of land in green area to Conselleria but is going to invest nearly three million to adapt it for facilities that are temporary, the Consistory is making an effort that goes beyond its competences. We have made a great effort to bring this point to plenary when the Conselleria did not inform until January 31 of the provisional location of the centres".
The item was approved unanimously.
Municipal report on Pla Edificant
In the same plenary session and outside the agenda, the report of the Municipal Secretary has been made public in which he reviews the various administrative steps of the Plan Edificant in Calpe to conclude that "there is a clear contradiction between the autonomous regulation of delegation, Article 9 of Decree Law 5/2017, and the basic regulation, Article 27 of the LRBRL, by the fact of attributing to the local entity the obligation to finance the Autonomous Community for works that are within its competence, as it is forced to finance the execution of the work above the allocated resources. Calpe Town Council cannot finance works that are the responsibility of the Generalitat, that is, it cannot subsidise something that is outside the sphere of local competences".
Therefore, according to the report, "a collaboration agreement cannot be signed between Calpe Town Council and the Generalitat to finance a work that is the responsibility of the Autonomous Community, as the agreement is signed in the exercise of the competences of each Administration and the Town Council is not competent for the construction of educational centres for special education or compulsory secondary education".
The municipal technician adds that "the Local Administration cannot carry out complementary activities in the field of education because article 28 of the LRBRL does not provide for it, nor is it possible to make use of article 7.4 of the aforementioned LRBRL because it is already a competence delegated to Calpe Town Council with the economic scope indicated in article 27 of the same LRBRL". Finally, the municipal secretary recommends that the Mayoress request the opinion of the Consell Jurídic Consultiu de la Comunitat Valenciana for a ruling on this matter.