The plenary session of Calpe Town Council has unanimously approved the project for the construction of the Gargasindi Special Education School, one of the most demanded and awaited initiatives in the municipality in terms of education. In this way, this educational centre, whose students moved to Benissa in June 2020 while waiting for the works of the new school to be undertaken, is closer to becoming a reality.
The approved project has a base budget of 7,493,415 euros, almost one and a half million euros more than the initial budget as a result of the increase in costs in recent years. For this reason, the Town Council will now ask the Generalitat Valenciana to modify the delegation of powers due to the increase in the budget for this project, included in the Pla Edificant.
In this way, once the authorisation from the Consell has arrived and its acceptance has been approved by the plenary, the initiative can be put out to tender.
According to the approved project, the new centre, with capacity for one hundred users, will have 12 general classrooms and different specific teaching spaces such as speech therapy classrooms, workshop classrooms, psychomotor and music rooms, physical rehabilitation and multisensory stimulation rooms, among others. It will have 3,495 square metres of construction and its design has been adapted to the characteristics and needs of students in a special education school. In this sense, it foresees that all the space destined for educational work will be on the ground floor and that it will be fully accessible.
It is estimated that the project, once tendered, could be a reality within 15 months.
The spokesman for Defendamos Calpe, Paco Quiles pointed out that this is "a necessary facility for our municipality and for the people who need this type of special education" and denounced the fact that it has taken three years for the project to be approved. "Three more years for the next phase," he said. And he criticised Compromís - who now form part of the government team along with Ana Sala - for questioning the PP and Ana Sala "for the delay, for dividing and slowing down these facilities" and for assuring that while they "were in government the project would not move forward".
The spokesman for Compromís, Ximo Perles, replied that: "we try to make criticisms of facts and in the previous legislature there was a fact that is criticisable as it was to tender on the one hand the drafting and execution of the demolition project and on the other the drafting and execution of the building" and that the objective is that this project is a reality as soon as possible.
The spokesman for the municipal PP group, César Sánchez, emphasised that: "What we in the PP are going to do is to give all our support to the government team so that this infrastructure, which is overdue, is up and running as soon as possible. The users and their families need it and we are indebted to them".
For his part, the spokesman for the socialist municipal group, Guillermo Sendra said that: "this item on the agenda is the culmination of a desire of all Calpe's people to return the Gargasindi to the city from which it never had to leave".
The spokesman for Somos Calpe, Juan Manuel del Pino, said that the government team will continue to "make every effort as before, so that this project is as fast as possible.
The mayoress of Calpe, Ana Sala, expressed her satisfaction with the approval of this point, although she regretted the procedures and obstacles for an infrastructure of these characteristics to be completed. "It takes us five or six years to get an educational centre off the ground, whether it is the Gargasindi, the fifth school or the IES, it is something that cannot work in life, nor the Pla Edificant or anything else until the system changes," she said. And he added: "Let's hope that this difference of 1.5 million euros with respect to the previous project is validated by the Regional Ministry of Education, and the PP has an important role to play here, to promote it and help us to get it off the ground as soon as possible".
Tourist train service
On the other hand, the plenary approved with the votes of the government team (Somos Calpe, PSOE and Compromís), the abstention of the PP and the votes against Defendamos Calpe, the proposal for the concession of the tourist train service in favour of the bidder José Ramón Ginestar Morell. The winning company has proposed as an improvement in its offer to also provide the service in an electric vehicle and pay a fee to the Town Hall of 55,000 euros per year. It now has ten working days from receipt of the request to present the required documentation so that the contract can be formalised.
Flood Plan
The plenary also approved the Municipal Flood Action Plan, a point that had the support of all political groups. This document has now passed through the plenary after having been approved in the September plenary the revision of the Municipal Territorial Plan against emergencies in Calpe as well as the other two specific municipal action plans such as the municipal action plan against forest fires and the municipal action plan against seismic risk.
These are emergency response plans with specific measures on how to act in the event of such a situation, which include meeting points for citizens, escape routes and communication channels with the Calpe population, among other measures.