ASdTorrevieja Information - tourist guide: Torrevieja in another push for a National Police Station

Torrevieja in another push for a National Police Station
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Keith Nicol on 27 July, 2010 10:47:00

The Council for the Interior "is offering to co-finance, together with the
Municipality of Torrevieja, the proposed new National Police Station.

VALENCIA’S Minister of the Interior, Serafin Castilian, accompanied by
Torrevieja’s Mayor, Pedro Hernandez Mateo, announced that the Council for the
Interior "is offering to co-finance, together with the Municipality of
Torrevieja, the proposed new National Police Station, which Zapatero’s
Government has promised for five and half years without having done anything!"
Castilian, who visited the area of land on Avda. de la Habaneras, that
Torrevieja’s Town Hall has already prepared and given to the municipality to
build the infrastructure, said it will ask once again to meet with Interior
Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, to emphasize the "urgent need" for the
construction of the station and urged the Government to "to stop and talk and
show with facts that they want to improve the safety of all the people of
Valencia."
The head of the Interior, stated that "the government promised six years ago to
build more police stations in towns of 30,000 or more inhabitants and
Torrevieja, not only exceeds that figure, but also has more than 100,000
inhabitants, being the only town of this size in Spain that lacks a National
Police Station!"
"If we add the figures of insecurity in the region of La Vega Baja, the
conclusion is that we can not further delay the construction of this
infrastructure that is so necessary to the public. In addition, the City has
done all their homework after ceding the land to develop the project," noted
Castilian. In particular, the Minister of the Interior stressed that the Region
"is above the national average crime rate in more than 15 areas. The southern
regions of Alicante, among which is the Vega Baja, are between three and four
points above the average for the Region. " Castilian stressed that "We will not
justify paying with bad excuses or hide behind the crisis, as the economic
situation does not seem to have affected other municipalities where the
government is pushing forward the building of another 10 police stations,
incidentally, that are governed by the Socialist Party!"
"Today, there are 11 municipalities of over 30,000 inhabitants of the Region
with no National Police station, representing nearly half a million citizens of
the Comunitat Valenciana; half a million people who are not protected by
National Police!" Castilian reiterated that public safety is a major concern of
the Government and for that reason, the Council are not going to stop claiming
that justice is for the people of Valencia."
It remains to be seen if any action shall be taken by the National Government
but possibly, since there is an election looming, something positive may come
out of this new course of action. The other issue with Torrevieja is the future
of the Guardia Civil, as throughout Spain, where there is a National Police
Station there is not a Guardia Station, and vice versa. The members of the GC in
Torrevieja are also living in uncertain times as to their own futures, and that
of their families while Zapatero is procrastinating about the National Police
Station in Torrevieja.
Keith Nicol