The recent proposal that the municipal government team has made to punctually modify the current PGOU, in four different issues, has made, once again, one of the great pending issues in our Elche City Council reappear.
And it is the lack of revision of the General Plan. Let us remember that the Generalitat finally approved it on May 25, 1998 and that the full City Council did it, provisionally, on May 26, 1997. In other words, it has been almost 25 years since Elx said his last word on such an important document .
That things have changed a lot in this almost quarter of a century that has passed is clear. However, for the City Council it is as if it were yesterday. We continue with the same forecasts and solutions that were raised then. The growth of the city and its districts is evident, as well as that of its population. The urban needs are others. The city model must adapt to the evolution of society. Citizen demands are not the same today as 25 years ago. Greater awareness of the environment, sustainability, respect for historical heritage, a more inclusive city towards increasingly numerous sectors such as the elderly, more respectful of people with different types of disabilities, more in need of cultural and social resources, that the historic palm grove is more protected, etc. etc., are more than enough reasons why, at this time, a revision of the PGOU would have been seriously considered which, after citizen debate, would allow the future of Elx to be focused with better means towards that new model of municipality that reality is demanding.
Curiously, at this time, all the mayors have agreed that, for these and other reasons, the PGOU had to be reviewed. And all have promised and broken. It seems to be part of the charge. Arrive promising your review, and leave it for whoever enters. It must be that they are scared to open that melon. And they discover that it is much easier and more comfortable to apply what is interesting and to punctually modify what is not interesting.
This is what, following tradition, the PSOE-Compromís government team has just done so that actions not allowed by the current PGOU can be done: transform a historical and public building such as the Clarisas into a private hotel, instead of the social endowment and cultural that was planned, as old declarations of mayors and officials of both parties remind us, and that now it squeaks to hear them again. Or that the provisional market is consolidated on the side of the river and can increase its occupation to eight meters in height, no less. These changes in PSOE and Compromís are indeed a profound transformation.
They are modifications to the letter, and it seems the model that our leaders are betting on. The hope that was opened, in November 2019, when the City Council exposed the prior public consultation of the review of the General Structural Plan, which is a mandatory process in its initial phase, has come to nothing. The deadline ended in January 2020, a year ago, and the contributions collected have not been heard from again. And that, as the document itself stated: «It will give rise to the obligation to prepare a report of joint response to the contributions received. The result of the consultation must be included in the file, indicating the number of participants, number of opinions issued and the response report ”.
The municipal silence and the lack of progress in the process are striking. No one who made suggestions has been answered, in an ugly display of little respect for citizen participation in a procedure like this.
Unfortunately, everything indicates that the current City Council will not undertake the necessary revision of the PGOU either. The councilors will avoid conflicts, but the municipality will suffer them. It is a matter of choosing priorities.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.