Budget meeting suspended by Elche court
Greens claim the rights of Torrevieja residents have been ‘abused’
A BITTER row has erupted in Torrevieja over the council’s budget after the Green party (Los Verdes) presented an official complaint to the courts.
The move by the Greens has meant that the emergency council meeting called for today (Friday) to finally approve the spending plan has had to be called off to comply with an order made by a judge.
Mayor Eduardo Dolón has accused the Greens of acting ‘in bad faith’.
He claims that information presented to the judge in Elche is ‘false’ and ‘completely biased’.
Sr Dolón stated that if the complaint is not upheld by the court then he will ask for councillor Israel Muñoz, who presented the appeal, to ‘assume responsibility for any economic damage that is done to Torrevieja town hall’.
He noted that the town hall has not yet had the chance to put their case to the judge.
However, the Greens assured that the judge halted the budget meeting due to ‘serious deficiencies’.
Sr Muñoz and councillor Carmen Morate appeared in a press conference to outline their case.
They allege that the rights of Torrevieja residents have been ‘abused’ because the town hall put the budget on public display while the state of emergency was still in force.
They did this on May 15 and the period for residents to present objections or suggestions ended on June 4.
However, the national government had suspended all such administrative procedures until June 1.
“This leads us to believe that they completely ignored the rules outlined in the royal decree and therefore violated the rights of all Torrevieja residents,” they noted.
They claimed that the Partido Popular (PP) town hall had presented the budget ‘late’ and their spending plan was a ‘botch job’ that would damage residents’ interests.
The PP have tried to ‘approve it via the back door, taking advantage of the Covid-19 crisis’.
“The PP do not have a blank cheque to do what they want with Torrevieja and its residents,” they stated.
Sr Dolón claimed that the move by the Greens will prevent the council from carrying out urgent measures such as employing new local police officers and social services staff, and ‘starting a programme of more than €12 million for investments for the town’.