The 2015 Andalucian Budget has been revealed in all its glory, and this region finally get some much needed TLC.
61 million euros will be spent building sewage works in Mojacar, Antas, Huercal Overa and Nijar. You will remember that the Antas sewage works was washed away in the great Vera floods, leaving all the waste to go down to the Garrucha one, which can’t cope and so causes those horrible smells. And then is all dumped in the sea at night.
Other notable points of interest:
- Autovia del Almanzora: the Albox motorway gets a further 2,7 million euros of funding to complete the Serón – Tíjola service road and Concepción – Cucador dual carriageway.
- Vélez-Blanco castle: 2 million for restoration of the patio del honor.
- Employment: 50,3 million euros for “employment and economic reactivation policies”. That includes 16,3 million euros for R&D, 6,1 million euros for the II Sustainable Plan of Construction, 6,5 million euros for the Youth Employment Scheme and 4,6 million for the 30+ Employment Scheme. 4 million euros will go on aid to get those “at risk of social exclusion” back into work. 69 business incubators see their budgets renewed for another year.
- Health: 2 million euros for new equipment for the main hospitals; free dental care for children continue as do additional health checks for the over 65, and the remote dependence scheme is expanded (vulnerable people on their own get panic buttons). There are currently 233 centro de atención primaria (local GP’s) across the province, and an average of 3.093 urgencias (A&E) a day.
- Transport: Adra & Villaricos will get their ports dragged. Money is assigned for the Garrucha tunnel. The Almeria-Seville air bridge is guaranteed for a further year. 15 million euros for secondary roads across Almería. The Plan Andaluz de Bicicleta continues to build more cycle routes in urban areas. 48.3 million euros will also be granted to towns across Almería for townhall to invest in local transport projects (the Patricia scheme). This last bit is against central government wishes and may be retracted via the courts.
- Agriculture: The Junta will dole out 64.4 million euros of EU cash to farmers. They top this up with 7.9 million euros in water investment and a further 1.3 for rural roads servicing farms.
- Forests & fires: 11 reforestation projects will receive 3.5 million euros, and 21.7 million euros will go on forest fire prevention.
- Llano Central: The macro-city of some 70,000 homes will be approved this year. whaaaat? Expect a lot more noise and changes of heart on this one – it’s only really going ahead because the Mayors are making a fuss about their town plans being in limbo for so long.
- Railways: Not a penny for the AVE, connection to Almería city or any improvement on Almeria port. Much anger over this.
The thing that gets me so annoyed is that there are several points here (the depuradoras, Garrucha tunnel, etc) that were either half built years ago & stopped, or should have been finished ages ago because of their urgency, but are only being reactivated this year because it’s an election year. In the meantime, we have to suffer with half built infrastructure, not to mention the sheer inefficiency and waste of tax payers money, just so the sevillanos can play at being politicians, and look for the biggest cutback.
Anyway, this years total presupuesto for Andalucia is 29.625,2 million euros (29.6 billion euros in UK money). 2 million euros more than last year (just so the politicians can boast that they’ve put it up in difficult times).