CalpeNoticias EN

As tradition dictates on Fadrí Day, Calpe has a new mayor. This morning, 18-year-old Maties Pastor Font became the town's new mayor after being handed over the baton by Mayoress Ana Sala. And although it will be for 24 hours, he has prepared a programme of measures that will be in force throughout the day.

The new mayor addressed the audience from the balcony of the Town Hall - members of the committee and citizens - and pointed out first of all that: ‘although I am the “fadrí” mayor, it is the fifth of 2006 who governs, and he said “it is a source of pride to be mayor of my town and to represent my fifth”. And among the proposals to be implemented by his government team, he announced the abolition of the time limit established by the mayoress to regulate the activities of the ‘peñas’ or ‘casales’ of fiestas that have been taking place for some years. Also, due to the drought situation, the suppression of fountains such as the recently installed filtered and refrigerated drinking water fountain in the Plaza Constitución, for which he encouraged people to drink ‘cerveza a gogó’, as well as the installation of escalators for the Avenida Gabriel Miró, among other proposals.

Maties Pastor closed his speech by inviting the whole town, citizens and visitors to enjoy the intense programme of events prepared by the festival committee. He then held the first plenary session of his mandate with the appointment of his government team.

The plenary session of the Calpe Town Council has approved a credit modification of 579,996.12 euros from the remaining cash flow, which will allow different expenses and investments to be made.

As explained by the mayoress of Calpe, Ana Sala, 150,000 euros of this amount will be used to organise a Christmas Fair ‘different, more extensive, with greater emphasis and scope’. Also, 85,382.86 euros will be invested in the installation of LED lighting for the historic centre of the town, 50,000 euros in the purchase of security cameras, 25,000 euros in the leasing of four motorbikes for the Local Police, 15,000 euros for the organization of a new Meeting of Innovative Communication and 40,000 euros for the purchase of furniture for the Social Centre of Social Services. In addition, 30,000 euros have been earmarked for the possible organisation of a new event in the last quarter of the year to celebrate the centenary of the Fishermen's Guild and another 40,000 euros for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Calpe music band.

 In addition to all this, 144,613.26 euros will be used to pay outstanding invoices for the ambulance service for the year 2023.

The topic has been approved with the votes of the government team (Somos Calpe, Psoe and Compromís) and the abstention of Defendamos Calpe and the popular municipal group.

The spokesman for Defendamos Calpe, Paco Quiles, pointed out that the government team does not have ‘an order of priorities, which establishes what is most necessary in the municipality’ and reproached them for spending money on ‘more fiestas when there are shortages’ and suggested the construction of a sports pavilion or the purchase of instruments for music schools, among other issues.

For his part, the spokesman for the popular group, Miguel Crespo, indicated that with this new credit modification Calpe will consume more than 17 million euros of surplus, according to a report by the Intervention and that presumably the spending rule will not be met in 2024. He accused the government team of lack of foresight and of using a ‘populist’ criterion when it comes to managing spending and the surplus. ‘It is necessary to have a political government project, which sets a direction and it seems that we often improvise too much,’ he said.

Guillermo Sendra, spokesman for the socialist municipal group, explained the need for the investments proposed by his delegations, such as the four new motorbikes for the Local Police, whose staff has increased by 16 new officers this year, and the installation of LED lights in the historic centre. ‘We are one of the few towns that still do not have low-energy lighting in the historic centre; it is imperative that we have lighting for the 21st century,’ he said.

 The spokesman for the government team and Compromís, Ximo Perles, pointed out that ‘as soon as a budget is approved, no matter how well you do it, it generates a surplus’, such as the fact that a member of the municipal staff is on sick leave - as 75 percent of their salary is paid by the Social Security. He also described it as ‘demagogy’ to compare investments in fiestas with the purchase of musical instruments, as Calpe does not have a public music school, and agreed on the need for a pavilion. "But if they are not in this surplus or in the general budget, it is because these investments require a project and as this project has not been drawn up, we do not want to make investments that are not going to be able to be executed.

On the other hand, Somos Calpeespokesman Juan Manuel del Pino pointed out that they have tried to cover the needs that had to be met ‘with an honest and sensible criterion’.

 Mayor Ana Sala defended the work of the government team in economic management. ‘We are a very responsible government in terms of the accounts; in the last five years this council has approved the budget in time and form’ and added that ‘if there is surplus available, what better way to invest that money than to give it back to the citizens’ through these projects.

MODIFICATION OF CEMETERY ORDINANCE

On the other hand, the plenary session unanimously agreed to the initial approval of the modification of the Ordinance for the regime and governance in the provision of services in the municipal cemetery. The aim is to provide a solution to a problem detected, which is to allow family members of Calpeinos up to the sixth degree of consanguinity who are not registered in the municipality to be buried in the cemetery. This modification will be applied to niches that already belong to the family and not to those newly occupied. Likewise, registration will not be required for the deposit of ashes in columbaria or in the family niche.

‘Today is a day when by changing one paragraph we improve people's lives, we try to mitigate the pain that this measure could cause’, emphasised the councillor for the Park of Eternal Rest Marco Bittner;

This is an amendment that has been in the works for a year and will also reflect the updating of the timetables that were already in place.

TRADE VOUCHERS

The plenary approved the modification of the bases of the Bono Comercio 2024 campaign to move the phase of the campaign planned for the first half of the year to the second half of the year. This has had to be delayed due to the new legal requirement to put out to tender the designation of the economic association in charge of managing the vouchers.

 In this way, the two phases of the campaign will be grouped into one with a total amount of 500,000 euros, although the rules foresee that in the event that this amount is not used up, a second call can be made in which the people who acquired a voucher in the first call can also be beneficiaries of a new voucher.

The bases of the Bono –Consumo 2024 campaign, financed entirely by the Diputación de Alicante and which will allocate 290,845.00 euros to Calpe, have also been approved. This campaign will take place after the celebration of the Bono Comercio campaign in order to continue with the objective of reactivating consumption in local commerce.

Calpe begins tomorrow, Wednesday, the patron saint fiestas in honour of the Virgen de las Nieves, organised by the 2024 Fiestas Commission and Calpe Town Council.

Tomorrow will begin with the aerial bombardment to announce the fiestas and the ringing of bells. In the afternoon, the festival-goers will gather in the Plaza del Arco Iris to perform the Entrada de la Murta through the streets of the old town until they reach the Plaza Miguel Roselló. There the queens and the children's king of the fiestas will perform the ‘Crida a la festa’ from the balcony of the Town Hall and the lights will be switched on. In the evening, the Plaza Mayor will host a performance by the orchestra ‘La Fiesta’.

On Thursday 1st August, the ‘Día del Fadrí’ will be celebrated, when the young festeros will take over the Town Hall and the ‘the staff of command will be exchanged for the 2006 festeros who will rule the streets of the municipality for a day. At midday there will be a ‘globotà’ in Llibertat street and cucañas in For a street, in the afternoon the parc de la Creativitat will host aquajocs and a foam party for the little ones. In the evening there will be a performance by the orchestra ‘Carnavalia’ in the Plaça Major.

On Friday 2 August, ‘Children's Day’ will be celebrated with various activities for the little ones. There will be a children's wake-up call, aqua-jocs in the Parc de la Creativitat and in the afternoon there will be traditional musicals in the Plaza Mayor, the children's ‘La rosa encantada’ at 7 p.m. and the general ‘Los 40 principales’ at 10.45 p.m., and at 1 a.m. ‘DJ Night’ in the Plaza Mayor.

On Saturday 3rd August, ‘El Día de las Comisiones’ will be celebrated with a mini-disco in the Plaza del Mosquit and cucañas and charanga in the Carrer de Fora in the morning, plus a giant paella in the Calle Conde de Altea, in the afternoon a water party in the Plaza Mayor and in the evening a performance by the orchestra ‘Seven Crashers’ in the Plaza Mayor.

On Sunday 4 August, the eve of the main festival, at 20:00 there will be a parade to collect the queens and members of the 2024 Festival Committee to gather in front of the Town Hall to go to the Parish Church where the Offering of Flowers to the Virgen de las Nieves will be held. In the evening there will be a big night-time mascletá (firework display) by Pirotécnia Caballer, followed by a performance by Orquesta Montecarlo in the Plaza Mayor.

On Monday 5th, the feast of the Virgen de las Nieves, Patron Saint of Calpe, the events will begin with an aerial bombardment and a parade by the Commission. At 13:00 a mascletá will be fired in the Plaza Mayor. At 19:30 the mass in honour of the patron saint is scheduled to take place in the Virgen de las Nieves parish church, followed by a procession through the streets of the old town, followed by the well-known Castell a la Mar organised by the Department of Fiestas, an ‘aero-aquatic’ fireworks display that will be set off from the Arenal-Bol beach breakwater. At 00:30 hours the Plaza Mayor will once again be the meeting point with a performance by the orchestra ‘La Tribu’.

On Tuesday 6th August, the Day of San Salvador, there will be a children's ‘despertá’ and a traditional game of Valencian pilota in García Ortiz Street. And in the afternoon, the festeros and authorities will move to the hermitage of San Salvador where the traditional mass in honour of San Salvador is scheduled to take place. This will be followed by a popular aperitif.

From the 6th to the 12th of August the traditional ‘Bous al carrer’ will be held in Conde de Altea street with afternoon and evening sessions organised by the Associació Festera Bous al Carrer. And on Sunday 11th August, the great parade of floats will be held from Benissa Street to Plaza Colón.

The festival will end with free concerts on the 14th and 15th of August with the Calpe Pop Festival. On the 14th of August from 21:00 onwards, it will be remember night with DJ Kofy, DJ Raúl Platero, Grupo Double Visión, DJ Chimo Bayo and DJ Vicente Buitrón. And on 15 August, from 9 p.m. onwards, DJ Sifo, Mikel Erentxun, Los Rebeldes and DJ Joan K-Zu will perform. These concerts are held in the Parc de la Creativitat and are free of charge.

The plenary session of Calpe Town Council will tomorrow approve the awarding of the Jaume Pastor i Fluixà - 9 d'Octubre Prize to the Fundació Comunitat Valenciana MARQ and Marq Museo Arqueológico Alicante for their contribution to the recovery and conservation of the archaeological sites of Banys de la Reina and the medieval Pobla d'Ifac.

The Marq has collaborated with the Department of Architecture of the Provincial Council of Alicante in the preparation and financing of Master Plan of Banys de la Reina, the roadmap that will allow the enhancement of one of the most important archaeological sites in its category in Roman Hispania. This strategic plan proposes in several phases the execution of different actions with the aim of converting the enclave into an archaeological park that can be visited.

On the other hand, the Marq has been carrying out excavation campaigns every summer since 2005 at the medieval Pobla d'Ifac, the ancient Christian settlement on the slopes of the Peñón de Ifach, which predates present-day Calpe and was founded in 1297 by Admiral Roger de Llúria. Thanks to the work of the Marq in these campaigns, valuable information has been discovered about the past and the ancestors of the Calpe people.

On the other hand, the municipal plenary will also recognise several entities and personalities of the municipality in its different modalities:

• Citizen Merit: Juan Santos who has been Justice of the Peace until last May after a career of more than 25 years in the Justice of the Peace, first as a substitute judge and since 2011 as a regular judge.
• Tourist merit: Jaume Masó. He has been working in the tourism sector for more than 50 years, more than 20 years as commercial director of the Unitursa group, a position from which he has contributed to the opening of new tourist markets for Calpe and, consequently, to the growth of tourism in the town. He is a reference in the promotion of tourism in Calpe and stands out for his commercial vocation and commitment to his clients. He is a great ambassador of Calpe because he has taken the brand of the town around the world.
• Sporting merit: Jozef Metelka. Slovak cyclist who trains and lives in Calpe for long periods of the year, winner of three medals at the Paralympic Games in Rio and another three in Tokyo. He is also 15 times world champion.
• Business merit: Pepa Pérez. She is a reference in the world of aesthetics and beauty in Calpe. She opened the first beauty salon in Calpe in 1968 and years later opened Pepa Pérez Esthétic Center in its current location in the Plaza Constitución, from where she has offered the most innovative treatments, equipment and beauty products on the market. Brides, festival girls, ladies, Moors and Christians... generations of Calpe inhabitants have passed through her salon. Her professionalism, her work ethic and her search for excellence make her worthy of this recognition.
• Cultural Merit: Marga López. A native teacher from Novelda, she arrived in Calpe as a teacher at the Azorín School in 1983. After a few years teaching in the infant stage, she became a teacher of the second stage, being the Valencian teacher for all the pupils in this stage as she was the only teacher with a degree in Valencian. She was the founder of the Natura Serpis association in the early 1980s. She retired in 2011 after teaching generations of Calpe citizens
• Premi Jove: Silke Ribes. Currently a student at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid, she has trained with leading teachers and in 2020 received the scholarship of the Curtis Summerfest in Philadelphia, a training programme offered by this high-performance institute, considered the best conservatory in the USA, as well as having won numerous awards despite her youth.
• Corbata de la Vila: Virgen de los Dolores Brotherhood. In the 1990s, a tradition was established whereby the 18 year olds of the current year's Festivities Commission carried the image of Our Lady of Sorrows in the Good Friday procession. This is a recent custom but full of meaning as all the boys and girls of the Festivities Commission are involved during weeks of rehearsals in order to carry the image of the Dolorosa together with the rest of the brotherhoods and sisterhoods of Calpe's Holy Week. Throughout these years the different commissions have had Rafa García, Rogelio Ramírez, Juan Santos and Miguel Ángel Sala as foremen.

The footbaths on Calpe's Fossa beach are back in operation. The company in charge of the maintenance service of this infrastructure and which has recently been awarded the tender managed by the Generalitat Valenciana has carried out between Wednesday 24th and Thursday 25th July the repair works of the pumping system, which was broken since March and which prevented the footbaths of the beach from working.

However, the system will be in test mode for a few days.

The breakdown of this service has led to numerous complaints from users and the Town Council itself requested in a letter to Turisme Comunitat Valenciana its interest in taking over the responsibility for repairing them, something which was not possible and so it has not been possible to rectify these deficiencies until the service was awarded by the Generalitat.

Aguas de Calpe has installed a filtered and refrigerated drinking water fountain in the Plaza Constitución square in Calpe, right in the centre of the municipality. The aim is to promote the consumption of tap water and to reduce the use of plastics.

Citizens will be able to refill their personal water bottles free of charge, which are automatically refilled as this fountain is equipped with a sensor.

This initiative is part of the Climate Change Adaptation Plan carried out by Global Omnium for Calpe Town Council.

‘This is the same water that the residents of Calpe have at home, although in this case refrigerated, to better withstand the high summer temperatures; with this we want to promote the consumption of tap water, which is a high quality water, and raise awareness about the need to reduce the use of bottled water that has a great environmental impact,’ said the mayoress of Calp, Ana Sala.

Calpe is getting ready to enjoy the patron saint's fiestas, which will begin on 31 July, and for this reason the Town Hall has hosted a meeting to coordinate the security operation for the festivities. The meeting was attended by the Councillor for Public Safety, Guillermo Sendra, together with members of the Local Police, the Department of Festivities, led by Mariola Mulet, the Department of Equality, the 2024 Festivities Commission and two representatives of the group of clubs.

During the meeting, various aspects were discussed to ensure that the fiestas run safely for residents and visitors. Thus, the regulation of noise schedules has been addressed and it has been agreed to establish a regulation of the schedules of noisy activities to minimise the inconvenience to residents. This measure seeks to balance the enjoyment of the fiestas with the residents' rest, establishing specific time slots for concerts, open-air dances and other noisy activities.

This year, for the first time, regulations have been established for the operation of the peñas or casales during the fiestas, which must be registered with the OAC and must keep to a timetable both inside and outside the premises depending on the days of the fiestas, adapting to the official programme of the fiestas. The aim is to keep noise emissions within limits that do not exceed the limits of the ordinance and do not generate conflicts with neighbours.

Safety during the fiestas has also been given absolute priority. To this end, a comprehensive plan has been designed which includes the reinforced presence of the Local Police and collaboration with other security forces. In addition, strategic control points will be set up in the busiest areas to prevent and act quickly in the event of any incident.

On the other hand, the City Council, in its commitment to equality and the fight against gender violence, will set up Violet Points in the Plaza Mayor to prevent and, if necessary, act in the event of possible cases of male violence during the patron saint festivities. These points will be set up in the Plaza Mayor on 30 July and 1,2,3,4,5 August from 23:30 to 03:30. It will be a visible space staffed by qualified personnel and coordinated with the different professional agents involved. Its aim is to promote respect for women so that they can enjoy the fiestas without violence or the risk of sexist aggression of any kind or intensity.

Calpe town council is planning to seal the old municipal landfill site in the town. This is intended to solve the historical environmental problem of waste disposal that has existed at this site since the closure of the facilities in the 1990s. The landfill, located in the Mascarat Gorge, was closed at the time without the appropriate waste treatment being carried out.

Among the various options for solving the problem, the city council decided in favour of sealing the landfill, i.e. sealing the surface of the site to prevent leachate from entering the ravine and the groundwater. In this way, other options were ruled out, such as sending the waste to the Campello treatment plant due to the high environmental cost of transporting it, as thousands of tonnes of waste accumulate in these facilities.

The City Council has invited tenders for the preparation of the technical project, which will determine the depth of the existing accumulation and the measures to be taken to seal the surface of this land.

‘We started to deal with this problem in the last legislature and we have been able to organise the tender for the development of the project to seal this landfill, the best solution we have for this environmental problem’, said the Councillor for Municipal Solid Waste, Juan Manuel del Pino.

The tender for the development of the project, which has a basic budget of 60,000 euros and an estimated execution period of six months, is currently in the phase of evaluating the bids submitted.

Calpe Town Council has announced the grants for the promotion of sport 2023-2024, for which an amount of 235,000 euros has been earmarked, with rules that aim to promote, among other aspects, sports associations.

This aid, aimed at local sports organisations, has two lines: line 1 with aid for participation in official sports competitions and the promotion of local grassroots sport, and line 2 with aid for the organisation of sporting events.

One of the objectives of these bases is to promote the associationism and therefore to obtain 100% of a grant of more than 12,000 euros, the sports entity will be required to prove that it has a minimum of 100 members, otherwise the grant will be reduced to 75%. For grants of up to 12,000 euros, a minimum of 50 members will be required; if this figure is lower, the grant will be 75%.

Other assessment criteria are the number of sportspeople with an official federation licence or participants in the Jocs Esportius de la Comunidad Valenciana, the number of categories of the club, the type of competition or the qualifications of the coaches and medical-health staff, as well as the ownership of the sports facilities.

On the other hand, eligible expenses will include travel expenses for attending national competitions or those derived from the competition itself, such as refereeing, sports equipment, monitors' expenses, etc. All expenses derived from the organisation of the sporting event that is the object of the subsidy will also be considered eligible expenses. The promotion of local sports will also be considered.

The grants are aimed at sports organisations with registered offices in Calpe, which will be able to submit their applications from tomorrow 24th July until 7th August via the electronic office.

The Tourism Department of Calpe Town Council has launched a survey on business confidence in the municipality in order to find out the perception of businessmen on the evolution of the economic situation of the municipality. This initiative is one of the requirements of the Calpe Strategic Tourism Plan and the Smart Tourism Destination Master Plan.

The Business Confidence Indicators are an interim survey whose aim is to gather the opinions of company managers on the current situation, as well as the company's prospects for the future. The target population are the establishments with at least one worker, distributed throughout the municipality of Calpe and the survey will be carried out quarterly

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In the survey, aimed at a minimum of 200 companies, Calpe's entrepreneurs are asked to evaluate the turnover, employment, investment and price index of the last quarter, as well as their expectations for the following quarter. They are also asked about the factors limiting the activity of the business in question.

These surveys will make it possible in the long term to know how business confidence is evolving, to monitor business confidence by quarter and to compare it with the national and regional data.

The Tourism Department ohas sent a letter to businesses registered in the Commerce and Tourism databases announcing the initiative and asking for their collaboration. The survey is voluntary, and the Town Council is very positive about its implementation, which in the first series has already received more than 200 responses.

As every summer, the Town Hall reminds beach users of the Municipal Ordinance for the Use and Management of the Coastline which prohibits the installation of chairs, sunbeds or sunshades before 9:30 a.m. so as not to hinder the cleaning of the beaches.

This measure prohibits the indiscriminate occupation of the public domain and makes special reference to the occupation of the beach with elements such as chairs, deckchairs and parasols from the early hours of the day.

This trend makes it difficult to clean the beaches, so the ordinance establishes that all items installed on the beaches before 9:30 a.m. may be removed and the owners denounced.

The ordinance also states that umbrellas, chairs or deckchairs left for more than three hours without the presence of their owners throughout the day may be removed. If there is evidence of these elements being installed without the presence of a responsible person or owner, the Town Council, through the Local Police and its cleaning staff, may remove these elements from the beach and transfer them to the Municipal Depot.

For some years now, the Town Council has received numerous complaints during the summer about the reservation of space on the beach, as when users arrive at the beach mid-morning they find metres of beach occupied without the owners of the elements installed being present.

The removal by the owners of the items deposited at the Local Police checkpoint will be carried out in accordance with the provisions of the tax ordinance regulating the police, good governance and taxation of non-sedentary sales.

Today we have welcomed the staff hired under the Local Employment Plan 2024. In this edition there are 47 workers hired through this plan that will run until the end of the year and has an investment of 1,000,000 euros. The main objective of the Employment Plan is to promote employability among groups with special difficulties for social and labour insertion.

The provision of these positions has been carried out by competition and the duration of the contracts is until the end of the year. A total of 47 posts have been offered with the following professional categories: 3 posts of caretaker in the Casa de Cultura, 6 posts of caretaker in Sports, 1 caretaker in schools, 6 posts of cleaning staff, 8 posts of labourer, 2 posts of animal collection service operator, 15 posts of environmental watchman, 5 posts of administrative assistant and 1 post of administrative assistant in the library.

To take part in this competition, the applicants had to be registered in the public employment service with a minimum of 3 months of uninterrupted seniority, be registered in Calpe and be at least 16 years old.

Given that the Employment Plan is a social measure of job creation, which tries especially to promote the employability of those groups with special difficulties for social and labour insertion, in the bases of the Plan prevail social criteria such as being a beneficiary of Social Services aid, being a large family, being a job seeker, etc... The Plan is endowed with €1,000,000 and will involve the temporary hiring of these staff until 31 December.

The Councillor for Human Resources, Paqui Solivelles, stressed the importance of this plan: "This initiative not only responds to the need to strengthen municipal services, but is also a firm commitment to support those who need it most. With this investment of one million euros, we are not only expanding our staff, but also contributing to the socio-economic development of Calpe. We are committed to employment policies that allow us to cover situations of vulnerability".