A year full of projects for Villajoyosa council

Villajoyosa’s mayor held his traditional ‘New Year breakfast with the press’ last Friday.

This is a less formal type of press conference where the mayor accompanied by councillors inform the media of their plans for the year ahead. This year Mayor Andreu Verdú (PSOE) was accompanied by his councillor for urban planning, Pedro Alemany (Gent per La Vila), councillor for commerce Josep Castiñeira (Compromís), who one by one explained the different projects the council has in mind for this year.

Mayor Verdú said, "We face this 2020 with great expectations, thanks in large part to the coalition ruling team being on the same page these past 6 months. An interesting year lies ahead due to the numerous projects that will be carried out, such as the extension of the pensioner’s social building; the completion La Cala promenade; the revamping of Avenida. Mariners de la Vila; the reorganisation of traffic in the town centre with the future construction of a roundabout in Avenida Pais Valencía; the awarding of the contract for blue zone parking, the restoration of the house of music and house of the fester buildings, the recovery of the Allon Roman baths; the awarding of a new school to replace the CEEP Secanet, and the construction of new schools such as the CEIP Gasparot, and CEIP Esquerdo, which will put an end to 40 years of schooling in portacabins in Villajoyosa.

The mayor also highlighted that progress will be made in smart tourist destination initiatives, and the council would continue to strive for a town where sustainable tourism is a matter of prime importance.

Mayor Verdú expressed his eagerness for the national government to eliminate the expenditure restrictions put in place during Mariano Rajoy’s government to curb excessive municipal spending in towns with debts. Villajoyosa has had its accounts in the black for the past year and is expected to approve within the next few months a €2million budget 2020.

Next to go was town planning councillor, Pedro Alemany, who highlighted the council’s intention of relaunching an ambitious drip irrigation project in the municipality, which ‘would greatly benefit the municipality and not only the agricultural sector’. This would be a great saving on yearly municipal water bills.

Josep Castiñeira, councillor for commerce, highlighted for this new term ‘the common will of the ruling team to make Villajoyosa a better municipality’, and said there will be a citizen participation programme, the historical Villa Centella and its gardens will be totally reformed so the building can be used for administrative purposes as well as be open to visitors.

Before finishing the meeting, Mayor Verdú also said that Villajoyosa’s rugby installations would be hosting the under-18 rugby world cup.