Earlier this month, the President of the Valencia Area, Ximo Puig from the PSOE, proposed a discount in Christmas lights of 20 p.c, each to scale back the prices to municipalities throughout a monetary disaster, however equally importantly to scale back the quantity of power consumed amid the present marketing campaign to scale back the reliance on power introduced on by the affect of the warfare in Ukraine.
Nonetheless, neither of these messages appeared to have reached Torrevieja, the place the plan of the Partido Fashionable (PP) authorities seems to be to extend Christmas lights this yr, and subsequently improve the amount of cash spent on them.
In accordance with Pablo Samper, spokesperson for Sueña Torrevieja, an opposition political group, the tender, which was revealed this week, “quantities to €360,969.20, which represents a rise of €158,737, virtually 80% over the earlier yr, which amounted to €202,239.
This improve is split into two sections: a rise in unit costs of round 13%, and a rise in lighting items of round 60%, which, in line with Samper, “will trigger a further improve in power expenditure by not complying with the rules to scale back power prices with the resultant improve in public lighting consumption over the earlier yr of 60%, which is able to imply greater than tripling the general public lighting invoice for 42 days”.
This improve is out of the query, they are saying, much more so with the discount in revenue as a result of discount from the capital positive factors tax, of which solely a complete of 1.66 million euro have been collected within the first six months of 2022, of the 22.24 million budgeted for the entire yr, whereas Samper assures “on the similar time the mayor and the councillor for the Treasury are begging the Ministry to stick to the examine fee of the Capital Positive aspects Tax for the municipalities”.
“Sueña Torrevieja defend our patron saint festivities and traditions, and we wish lighting for these dates, for that reason we consider that with what was invested final yr is already greater than sufficient and we don’t perceive this brutal improve in a state of affairs of world power disaster, with households struggling to make ends meet and fill the buying cart.”
Torrevieja council is more and more being criticised for losing public cash, resembling has been the case within the live shows held within the city over summer season, at an enormous value to the general public purse, however with out seeing any return.
