New auditorium confirmed
Provincial government to make its biggest investment ever in Elche
PLANS to build an auditorium with 1,200 seats in Elche were confirmed by the provincial government and city hall last Thursday.
The provincial government will pay for the building and the council will provide the land, explained Socialist party (PSOE) mayor Carlos González and provincial president César Sánchez, of the Partido Popular (PP) after a meeting in Alicante.
To come up with the project, a committee will be set up from both institutions, which will launch an international design contest with a budget of approximately €200,000.
Once a jury has selected a short list from the submissions, these will be put to a vote so residents of Elche can choose what ‘this very important project will be’, revealed Sr Sánchez.
The first step is for city hall to sign over the land and then funding for the contest can be allocated.
The auditorium will be the largest investment ever made by the provincial government in Elche, he assured.
Sr González assured the meeting between these ideologically opposed figures had been very ‘positive and fruitful’, having made progress with ‘a common idea we have been working on for a few months’.
He said the auditorium project ‘will put the city on the national and international map for attracting large-scale cultural events and conferences, and will invigorate cultural and economic activity’.
At a press conference the following day with the spokespeople for his partners in the coalition council, the mayor noted that they have been insisting throughout this legislature that the provincial government invest in Elche the same was it does in Alicante.
“I’ve told the president several times that the people are unhappy at the lack of investment… and in the end we have managed to get the provincial government to change the way it has been clearly marginalising our city for over 20 years,” he said.
For this reason he insisted that the auditorium should be 'up to the same standard' as the ADDA in Alicante city.
“We don’t want people to think this is just an empty announcement because the elections are coming up,” insisted Sr González
To this end, he announced that city hall will cede the land where the Jayton factory used to be, which is on Avenida de Novelda in the Carrús neighbourhood.
He said this area needs pub- lic investment and the 4,000square-metre plot is well communicated, close to Avenida de la Libertad and the train station.
“It fits the project perfectly and will have an underground car park with at least 500 spaces both for users of the auditorium and residents of the neighbourhood,” the mayor explained.
Interestingly, the same plot was earmarked for an auditorium back in 2010 by the previous PSOE council, at which time a design contest was also held and residents chose a winner but the project was mothballed after the PP won the local elections in 2011.