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Areas General Services Presidency Assembly members green-light 2020 spending

Assembly members green-light 2020 spending

foto-ple-desembre-2019j1Councillors convened today for the December plenary of the Consell de Formentera, a session that brought approval for the local government’s spending projections for 2020. Tax office councillor Bartomeu Escandell called the €30.6-million budget “a statement in defence of stable spending; we’re putting out only as much as we’re taking in, and keeping debt at zero”.

The tax office chief said €1.5m for local associations were intended to “improve islanders’ quality of life”. “This is an administration that believes in bringing people to the table, giving associations positions of prominence and looking after not only the island’s elderly and youth, but our language and traditions as well”.

Escandell said one thing not to expect from the new budget was tax increases, and he described fiscal fairness as “one of the top priorities”. “We’re certainly not turning our backs on our young ones and elderly, either”, he insisted, holding up €1.1m for the Sant Ferran nursery and €700K to complete the home for aged. As for the island’s underprivileged, Escandell held up a line item allocating money in the form of renters’ assistance for victims of gender violence.

Country and heritage
Escandell also highlighted plans to continue supporting local agriculture by increasing funding for joint initiatives with the local Farmers’ Co-op from €115K to €130K. As for heritage spending, he emphasised €250K to rehabilitate catalogued sites and drystone walls and bury overhead utility cables.

Upgrades are in the works in Es Pujols, too, where plans are currently in place to prepare and phase in part two of the downtown-area improvements. Additional urban-service upgrades are also scheduled in Es Ca Marí. Other planned projects will entail reorganising and regulating moorage at Estany des Peix, continuing to restrict the in-bound flow of vehicles and improving public transport. More improvements are in store in Sant Ferran, as well, where residents will see a new children’s park opened and the second phase of upgrades begin on Avinguda Joan Castelló i Guasch. In Sant Francesc, there will be a new skatepark, and improvements in the eastern part of town.

Opposition
Spending plans for 2020 passed amid “yes” votes from the GxF-PSOE governing team and the abstention of Sa Unió. Party spokesman Llorenç Córdoba claimed exclusion from the drafting process motivated the group’s decision, while asserting the move should be interpreted “a vote of confidence for the new governing coalition”.

Improvements in La Mola
The governing team lent support to Sa Unió representatives’ proposed improvements on Carrer Àngela Ferrer in La Mola, where the undergrounding of utility cables is still pending on that road and on the town’s central arterial. Assembly members underscored the efforts already made by the local government—installing conduit, for instance—to make further upgrades possible. The motion involved encouraging the Consell de Formentera to “continue calling on local service providers like Telefónica and GESA that currently use overhead lines on Carrer Àngela Ferrer and Avinguda de La Mola to take charge of their burial”.

New technologies councillor Vanessa Parellada explained the administration’s support for the measure by pointing out that, after a more nuanced description of work performed to date and modifications in collaborative agreements had been successfully secured, “the proposal reflects work by the Consell de Formentera and supports further progress in the same direction—i.e. to preserve the local landscape by keeping new aerial cables from going up, and burying those that are already in place”.


19 December 2019
Department of Communication
Consell de Formentera

Presidency

Press Office

971 32 10 87 - Ext: 3181
premsa@conselldeformentera.cat

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