In today's telematic plenary session, the government presented the Resiste Plan, which includes both emergency social assistance and assistance to industry and commerce to mitigate the effects of Covid19 in the community.
On the one hand, the Mayor's decree approving the budget amendment was confirmed. It makes it possible to allocate up to one million euros to the municipal social services. Of this amount, the first 100,000 euros will already be allocated to the emergency social aid COVID19, a direct aid to people without means to cover the costs of food, medicines and hygiene.
In addition, the staff of the social service has been increased by 4 people for the home care service and the department has been restructured to respond to the needs that have arisen.
As far as economic measures are concerned, a budget amendment was adopted in plenary to increase the reserve of EUR 830 000. This amount, in order to support the productive sectors, is concentrated on the local trade of Calp through direct subsidies or by subsidising municipal taxes. Although all the political groups have approved the measure, it was decided to leave the approval in suspension and to set this amount aside until the regional government (Conselleria) responds, so that the aid proposed by the municipality is not granted twice.
In addition to these measures, approval has been added to the bases which are intended to regulate aid for housing for pensioners and the long-term unemployed with normal residence. The aim is to subsidise the property tax (IBI) for permanent housing in the year preceding the call, so that there is no deterioration in the living conditions of people suffering from a disadvantaged economic situation.
The subsidy amounts to a maximum of 75% of the property tax paid, with a ceiling of 400 euros per beneficiary. This amount is increased by 10% in the case of disabled people or members of life communities with a disability, victims of gender-based violence or single-parent families. On this point, Compromís spokesperson, Ximo Perles, has pointed out that "this measure is not complemented by subsidies for renting apartments; the person who has property is subsidised, but the person who does not have property is not subsidised". The PSPV-PSOE spokesperson also added that "there is a need for social housing in Calp; at the moment there is not a single social housing, and this is a matter for the municipality”.
On the other hand, the plenary session approved the adoption of an agreement on the regulation on acoustic conditions, which in August will ban all types of urbanisation and construction work for residential purposes, in order to mitigate the effects of the state of alarm and the cessation of work on the construction sector in the town. In this way, the execution of works is allowed between 9:00 and 15:00 in August to compensate the sector for the paralysis of its activity.
In addition, the amendment to the Municipal Transportation Ordinance was approved to regulate the use of vehicles for the transportation of passengers, specifying the applicable traffic regulations and their use on municipal roads, the general rules and the related system of penalties. The bases for granting aid for the renovation of facades were also approved.
The Defendamos Calpe group has made several proposals, the first of which, according to its spokesperson, Paco Quiles, "is to remove non-urgent investments from the municipal budget and allocate them to temporary summer workers. The idea is to ensure that no one is left behind to help the summer workers who are typical of the municipality's tourism model. Although the proposal was supported by the opposition factions, the City Council did not support it and stated that "we have no competence to grant aid according to the type of employment contract and have concentrated the aid elsewhere.
Another proposal by Defendamos Calpe, which also failed to succeed, is to cut the salaries of councillors and advisors by 30% for six months. In this regard, the mayor, Ana Sala, said that "the reduction in our salary means that this money will go into the single fund. We cannot use it to help directly. We make private donations to Caritas and the Red Cross, the NGOs that work in Calp. Ximo Perles also announced that the Compromís Group has made a donation to the Red Cross, and the and the Social Democratic spokesman, Santos Pastor, expressed the same opinion. Juan Manuel del Pino said that "at the moment the best example is our work and that each of us should help as much as possible". Toni Tur of Defendamos Calpe added: "To avoid the dissatisfaction of citizens with politicians, we wanted to give an institutional response".
Defendamos Calpe's proposal to form a multidisciplinary team of Town Hall technicians and independent consultants to draw up a plan for the economic development, conversion and reconstruction of the Calp municipality in order to speed up the recovery of the business structure was successful and was accepted.