The plenary session has initially approved the municipal budgets for 2025, accounts amounting to 54,911,909 euros, 16.93% more than the previous year.
The mayoress of Calpe, Ana Sala, pointed out that these budgets are intended to ‘improve the quality of life and welfare of our neighbours and undertake necessary investments to improve the municipality’ and explained that these accounts are conditioned by the increase in the rubbish tax ‘as in each and every one of the other municipalities in Spain’ in compliance with a state law that transposes a directive of the European Union.
In her speech, she listed the investments planned for this year, such as the start of the construction of the Fester Museum in the Casa Beltrán (in Plaza España), which will be the headquarters of all the festive associations and will have advanced technology, a project which forms part of the Tourism Sustainability Plan in Destinations within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR) financed by the European Union - Next Generation. Also planned is the adaptation of the Civil Protection premises (117,491 euros), the extension of the crossing work in the Barranc del Pou Roig ravine (222,678.38 euros), an accessibility and pavement maintenance project (250. 000 euros), the elimination of reeds by installing opaque coverings and restoration of riverside vegetation in the Quisi ravine (100,000 euros), installation of new solar streetlights (154,275), drainage and rainwater infrastructures (1,074,589.36) and the installation of solar panels in the swimming pool (57,438.87 euros). Also the creation of the Centre for Recovery and Socio-occupational Integration for people with mental health problems (100,000 euros) which will be located in the old Victoria cinemas.
At the same time, the T road to Puerto Blanco and the E Ràfol-Empedrola road will be promoted, a dog park will be set up in La Manzanera and the urban allotments will be extended, among other projects.
On the other hand, the 2025 accounts also contemplate an increase of almost 210,000 euros in the rescue and lifeguard service, which will amount to 835,739.26 euros, and 175,516.51 euros in beach cleaning, which will have a total budget of 633,085.30 euros.
All of this without increasing taxes except for the rubbish tax, and tax relief measures will continue to be applied such as the suspension of the tax on the opening of establishments, the 5.04% reduction in urban property tax, the 95% reduction in capital gains tax on inheritances, the reduction in property tax for the installation of solar panels, the suspension of the tax on the occupation of public roads for hotels and restaurants from November to April, and the exemption from the tax on the holding of events.
In addition, nine lines of aid will be maintained: for permanent housing (40,000 euros), youth rental vouchers (50,000 euros), sports aid (80,000 euros, although an extension to 250,000 euros is planned), cultural promotion (140,000 euros), rehabilitation of facades in the old town (70,000 euros), Bonobaby (20,000 euros), bonuses on the tax on vehicles for hybrid and electric vehicles, as well as bonuses on IBI for energy efficiency.
In the Personnel chapter, 12 new posts have been created, while 9 previous posts are to be cancelled. The new positions are local police inspector, school maintenance worker, beach maintenance worker, youth technician, occupational therapist, an architect, two environmental guards, an administrative assistant assigned to municipal brigades, a works supervisor, an intervention technician and a deputy treasurer. In addition, the mayoress announced the intention to approve a plan for the management of the council's human resources.
The budgets were approved with the only votes in favour of the government team (Somos Calpe, PSOE and Compromís), as Defend Calpe and the PP municipal group voted against.
Defendamos Calpe spokesman Paco Quiles pointed out that: ‘the budgets remain the same as in previous years, there are no transcendental changes, it is because you are not 100% dedicated to this town hall’. He added that the rubbish tax ‘is completely unfair’ and criticised the increase in personnel costs and that a plan to organise human resources is urgently needed.
PP municipal group spokesman Miguel Crespo described these budgets as those of the ‘rubbish tax’, budgets which without this increase ‘would have been unviable’. He also described them as ‘simple and calm’. ‘The planned investments are repairs and patches such as the repair and adaptation of sports facilities or pavements and this does nothing to improve the lives of our neighbours, we do not grow as a city’. Furthermore, he pointed out that both the tax incentives and the planned investments were initiated in the previous legislature under the PP government.
The socialist spokesman Marco Bittner, referring to this intervention, said: ‘Thank you, Mr Crespo, for saying that these are calm budgets, there is no greater aspiration for a politician, for a municipality, than to have calm budgets, a calmness that will be transferred to the people, or do you want these budgets to generate chaos and confusion? No, calm budgets, a calm government, that is good for the economy and for the citizen’.
The spokesman for Compromís, Ximo Perles, mentioned different projects included in the budgets that were not initiated in the legislature governed by the PP, such as the IBI rebates for the installation of photovoltaic panels, aid for cultural training, as well as for access to housing, among others.
For his part, the spokesman for Somos Calpe, Juan Manuel del Pino, has reproached the two opposition spokesmen for using ‘the same phrases as last year’ and added: ‘when we are investing money in social aid, when it comes to improving infrastructure, when it comes to meeting the needs of this town ... aren't we improving people's lives?’