The plenary session of the Xàtiva City Council has given the green light this Thursday to a motion presented by the government team of PSPV and Xàtiva Unida in which the development of an Action Plan is proposed to modernize the city’s drinking water and sanitation network. .
This project is planned for the long term and requires the participation of all municipal political forces, as well as financing with its own resources and with all the subsidies and aid that can be obtained from other institutions. The motion also includes special attention to people affected in their homes by leaks and humidity caused by the public service (especially in the cases of older people and people affected by the digital divide) and the commitment to inform the population about the actions that will be carried out with this Plan, with special attention to the historic center neighborhood.
This modified motion was approved with the votes in favor of the PSPV, Xàtiva Unida and Vox, and with the abstention of the Popular Party. And the PP presented its own motion for the modernization of the drinking water network, which was rejected by the parties of the government team.
Street cleaning services
The municipal plenary session has also unanimously approved the approval of the file for the contracting of street cleaning and urban solid waste collection services through an open procedure.
“This is the most important contract, economically speaking, of the entire legislature, in addition to being a contract of absolute necessity and urgency. We remember that we continue with the contract inherited from the government before 2015, a deficient contract with cuts in budget and human resources, the results of which are visible to all citizens,” explained the Councilor for Waste Management and Street Cleaning María. Beltrán, who recalled that the document was paralyzed “as a result of an administrative appeal that has led to a delay, and that was resolved at the end of September.”
As Beltrán has expressed, with the changes introduced, it is expected that the cleanliness of the city will improve significantly, with the implementation of the fifth container and the door-to-door service to the old town of Xativa. “This last one is a very important challenge of training but also of information to citizens, but it will make the selective collection effective in an area of Xàtiva that with the current service would be almost unviable.”
The contract amounts to 32.28 million euros spread over a decade and the specifications contemplate other points such as improvements by electric vehicles that minimize the environmental impact, environmental education program, supply of buckets for door-to-door, the renewal of containers and the notable improvement of the cleaning service taking into account the frequencies and means used, both in the city and in the gardens and green areas, districts, industrial estates and city entrances.
The spokesperson for Xàtiva Unida Amor Amorós has indicated that “we hope that this start of the file will lead to a new cleaning model that makes the city better cared for, that the waste we generate is reused to the maximum and that the only waste we will reduce is vehicle emissions for cleaner air. The application of the new contract will mean more investment and more workers to reach more places more frequently and listening first-hand to what citizens continually want: better cleaning and maintenance actions in public spaces.”
Criticisms of the PP
For his part, PP councilor Eduardo Llopis has starred in a critical intervention that began by ironically congratulating himself that “finally, after more than a year, the cleaning contract is being approved.” Llopis has assured that “being more than a year without this contract is not convenient for a city like Xàtiva.” The popular councilor has accused the municipal government of negligence, saying that “with you an anomaly becomes normality. His track record in terms of contracting and contract execution supports them and not exactly for the better”, going on to relate an extensive list of what he has described as “fiascos” of municipal management. The mayor, who has repeatedly urged Llopis to focus on the issue of the debate, has responded to the popular that “what we do not do is hand out awards to friendly companies that then, presumably, dedicated themselves to financing some sports club and hire by hand so that later there are cases of corruption. “We strictly comply with the legislation.”
