The plenary session of the city council today approved the extension of the Plan Resiste with a new line that allows to subsidize up to 30% of the waste collection fee from local companies. The aim is to revitalize the municipality's industry by mitigating the economic impact of the cessation of activities in recent months.
The legal basis for granting subsidies was discussed in today's plenary session. The aim is to help local businesses by subsidising the waste collection fee in the first half of 2020 up to 30% of the amount and with a maximum of 2,000 euros.
The Defendamos Calpe group has proposed two amendments; the first is to divide the aid in such a way that no company will be left without it, and the second is to grant the aid directly by paying the subsidy to all companies, avoiding bureaucratic procedures. Defendamos Calpe's spokesman, Paco Quiles, said that "if applications exceed the amount allocated, it may not be possible to reach everyone and, if necessary, increase the budget for this aid".
The amendments were rejected; in this regard, the Financial Councillor Fernando Ortiz has indicated that the statistical data on the garbage collection fee has been consulted and the total amount of the subsidy has been calculated on the basis of these fees, so that "nobody is excluded from the aid". He also added that a simplified and faster procedure for granting the aid will be introduced.
All the political groups in the city council voted in favour of the principles governing the granting of the aid, for which a transfer of 178,000 euros was made.
This aid is compatible with other subsidies to support local industry to combat the coronavirus, which have been set up by the Calp Town Council, that is to say, it is eligible for aid under Line 1 of the Plan Resiste for industry and commerce and for subsidies for waste collection fees. The aid is not compatible with aid granted by other administrations for the same purpose.
Another point of discussion was the Socialist Group's proposal to suspend payment of the taxi fee and exempt mechanically propelled vehicles from paying the tax for this sector. Socialist spokesperson Santos Pastor said that "the taxi sector is severely affected by the state of alert and we are pushing its demand for tax exemption to compensate for the fall in income it has suffered in recent months”. Finally, all the political groups have agreed to start examining this proposal.
Not on the agenda were the urgent award of the service for the introduction of a system for monitoring presence and capacity on the beaches of the municipality of Calp, worth EUR 95 632, and the strengthening of the disinfection service for the beach elements (footbaths, railings, pavements, etc.) for the months of June, July, August and September, worth EUR 10 703.
The opposition groups are sceptical about the effectiveness of an application to control beach capacity, and all have chosen to recruit staff during an exceptional tourist season. The Councillor for Beaches, Matias Torres, has commented that "we looked at several options: firstly, the fence on the beaches and the use of drones, which we rejected, and the recruitment of staff and the app we finally chose”.
The mayor, Ana Sala, has pointed out that "the government team has to juggle the budget because little help is coming from other administrations”.