By The Curmudgeon
We all know that local councils start spending money on vanity projects in the run-up to an election. It happens everywhere, in the UK, in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Probably also in Ukraine.
This diatribe is specific to Ronda, but I’m sure it is relevant to other places.
Ronda Council is taking the mickey, isn’t it? I don’t usually get involved in politics, but I have looked on in horror at the huge amounts of money being ploughed into all kinds of projects in the town, by the ruling Partido Popular.
Local councils in Spain have elections this May. Ruling councils tend to invest in a range of vanity projects to try and get re-elected. Opposition parties make promises they cannot hope to fulfil.
This activity demonstrates a lack of common sense on the part of our local politicians.
Look at this list of disastrous, extremely costly and environmentally damaging projects currently in progress or recently completed in my town: photo-voltaic farms, new outdoor pool near LIDL, new bus station, huge multi-storey car park in Barrio San Francisco, demolition of existing swimming pool to create a new sports area on Avenida de Malaga, new road layout at the Recinto Ferial.
The Council trumpets its environmental credentials, with its plan to do away with paper and transfer to digital means of communication, but this is just playing at being eco-friendly.
Not a single council building sports a solar panel! Lights in council buildings are on all day whether needed or not. Fiestas and ferias continue as before with a huge waste of electricity on lighting. I could go on, but I’m getting cross ….
Back to the list of vanity projects. Where is the common sense?
100 acre photo-voltaic farms in Cuevas del Becerro are insane. Where’s the common sense?
Why build a brand-new outdoor swimming pool that is only open for three months of the year? Particularly when there was one already on Avenida de Malaga. It would surely have been cheaper to renovate that one. It makes common sense.
Why do we need a new bus station? The current one is well-located. It would have been far cheaper to renovate that. It’s not as if there are that many buses that come to Ronda. No common sense.
As for the monster multi-story car park being built on a greenfield site in the Barrio San Francisco, well, words fail me.
The old swimming pool at the bottom of Avenida de Malaga has been razed to the ground, in order to create a sport zone. Sorry, I thought they were planning one of those on the site of the old Mercadona store, where there is already an indoor pool, an all-weather pitch and other facilities.
The latest headline in the local paper informs us that the council is going to spend half-a-million euros on re-arranging the road system at the showground. The work will take four months. Where is the common sense?
There appears to be no joined-up thinking going on at the council. Where is their common sense?
Right, my rant is over. I’ve probably missed other projects that make no sense, but I hope I’ve made my point.
I shall be exercising my right to vote in the May local elections and I hope other guiris got registered in time so that they too can have a say. I shall be looking for an alternative to the Partido Popular, which has presided over 12 years of waste and a lack of basic common sense in the town. PSOE is a possibility, but there are two other parties, I understand. Contigo Ronda and Ronda 100 por 100.
I hope you will make your vote count also. Vote for COMMON SENSE!