The Provincial Corporation has approved in the Ordinary Plenary Session held this morning more than 17 million euros that will be used, on the one hand, in the improvement of the Provincial Road Network and, on the other hand, for the provincial plans of Culture, Cinema and Identity of Almeria and Sport, so that the promotion of physical activity and healthy lifestyle habits and cultural initiatives reach every corner of the province of Almeria.
The Provincial Councils have unanimously approved the list of actions to be carried out on the Provincial Road Network in 2024 and 2025. 6.3 million euros will be invested in these actions, which will be used in more than twenty projects whose main objective is to structure the province around an increasingly safer road network, which guarantees accessibility in optimal, sustainable and fluid conditions to all municipalities in Almeria, especially those in rural and less populated areas.
Among the more than twenty projects approved are improvement and modernisation works in all the regions, with actions such as the rehabilitation of the road surface with new pavements, the remodelling of accesses, or the installation of new horizontal signage in order to improve the safety and comfort of all users of provincial roads, as well as to facilitate communication between all municipalities and population centres.
In this regard, the vice-president and spokesman for the government team, Fernando Giménez, explained that «the provincial road network is one of the most modern and well-maintained in Andalusia. The list of actions approved today for this year and next year will allow us to continue maintaining the more than 1,200 kilometres of provincial roads in perfect condition, which will allow us to continue to equalise opportunities between Almeria residents, wherever they live, and contribute to improving the quality of life of all residents».
Sport and Culture throughout the province
Today’s plenary session unanimously gave the green light to the Provincial Plans for the areas of Culture, Cinema and Identity of Almeria, and Sport for 2024. The approved investment between the two plans exceeds 11 million euros, which will be used to ensure that sport and cultural initiatives reach every corner of the province.
The Provincial Plan for Culture, Cinema and Almeria’s Identity has a budget of 5.6 million euros, 200,000 more than in 2023, with which the main objectives of the area will be shaped, such as meeting the cultural needs of the municipalities, promoting activities that favour the recovery of indigenous cultural manifestations, disseminating and enhancing the value of Almeria’s cultural heritage, promoting knowledge, research and dissemination of Almeria’s themes…
To this end, the area will implement proven initiatives that enjoy the support of the public, such as the provincial circuits of different arts, programmes to encourage reading, creative leisure, promotion of cultural heritage, the reinforcement of the International Film Festival of Almeria, FICAL, to reach more municipalities, the Provincial Film Office ‘Filming Almeria’, the summer film circuit, or all initiatives carried out by the Institute of Almerian Studies (IEA), along with many other programmes to support projects of a municipal nature or in collaboration with other entities.
«The actions in the field of culture are avant-garde and effective and come from a planning that is carried out from the area of Culture, together with the technicians. There are singularities of each City Council that could not be picked up if not in this way. In this way, the needs of the municipalities in terms of culture are met. Without the Provincial Council there would be no culture in its entirety in all municipalities,» said the Vice President of the Provincial Council of Almeria.
As for the Provincial Sports Plan, its budget has more than doubled from 2.1 million in 2023 to more than 5.4 million this year. To articulate this investment, five lines of action have been configured: healthy living, maintenance, sponsorship, financial assistance for technical sports services and equipment and the ambitious Retural project, Active Tourism Resources Network of the Province of Almeria, Alpujarra and Sierra Nevada.
It is committed to tourism sustainability strategies in destinations with sport as a channelling element, thereby helping to revitalise certain territories and fight against depopulation. More resources are allocated to direct economic assistance to municipalities, as well as to activity projects that have a direct impact on them, working on their sporting habits and on the creation of active environments that facilitate the practice of physical activity in their daily lives.
Collaboration with the different entities in the provincial sports ecosystem (clubs, federations, associations of people with disabilities, companies in the sector, etc.) is also addressed, as they are essential for implementing and carrying out activities in all municipalities and especially in those with less management capacity.
The Provincial Councillor Carlos Sanchez stressed that it is a «revulsive plan that will bring joy to the province of Almeria» and that «the plan has great novelties in terms of amount and actions. A questionnaire has been carried out so that town councils with less than 20,000 inhabitants can make their proposals, and it is an open Sports Plan with five new lines of action».
Extension of the Life Phoenix project
Another of the points of the day unanimously approved in today’s plenary session consisted of the extension of the execution period of the European Life Phoenix Project with the aim of deepening the results of this initiative and facilitating its practical application in the province of Almería. The extension of this period is for one year, and will remain active until 28 February 2025.
The main objectives of the project are: to demonstrate multi-barrier treatments using different technologies for the reuse of secondary effluents from WWTPs, capable of complying with the new quality requirements of Regulation 2020/741, installed at the El Toyo WWTP (Almeria); and to study the impact of the new EU Regulation in the province of Almeria.
The Life Phoenix project is made up of the different European partners: Aqualia, Provincial Council of Almeria, UAL-CIESOL, Confederación Hidrográfica del Guadalquivir, Fundación Centro Tecnológico de Investigación Multisectorial, Newland Entech Europe, Aguas de Portugal and MicroLAN from the Netherlands.
Adhesion to the manifesto for the 8 M, International Women’s Day
The Provincial Council of Almeria has formalised in the ordinary plenary session this Friday its adhesion to the manifesto that all the Andalusian Provincial Councils will promote next March 8 when International Women’s Day is celebrated, a day recognised by the UN to vindicate the rights of women around the world. All the Andalusian Provincial Councils agreed on this text at a meeting coordinated by the Provincial Council of Jaén, and this Friday it was approved by the Provincial Council of Almeria with the favourable vote of the PP and PSOE, with Vox voting against.
The approved document adopts the slogan «tireless. We will not stop» to encourage people to speak out «loud and clear to demand women’s rights without fear. To defend women’s right to decide about their bodies and their sexual and reproductive health. To demand education without stereotypes. To eliminate gender gaps in access to resources. To eradicate all forms of violence against women.
Support for Spanish farmers and stockbreeders
The Provincial Corporation has unanimously backed a motion presented by the Popular Group in support of Spanish farmers and stockbreeders in view of the delicate moment the sector is going through with the increase in production costs, the asphyxiating bureaucratic and regulatory requirements, the application of the new CAP, the drought…
The Plenary shows its support for the primary sector of Almeria, its farmers and livestock farmers, claiming its importance in the development of the province and the rest of Andalusia, from a productive, economic, social and environmental point of view. Support the shock plan of 15 measures demanded by the Partido Popular to tackle this crisis and, finally, ask the Government of the Andalusian Regional Government so that, in turn, urge the Government of Spain to adopt these measures as soon as possible.
«Today we are asking for a series of measures to mitigate the situation of Almeria’s farmers and thus do justice. It is a sector that employs 68,000 people directly in the province, and in addition to exporting health and quality, they feed 500 million people around the world,» said Provincial Council member Carlos Sánchez.
The President of the Provincial Council of Almeria, Javier A. García, came out in defence of Almeria’s agriculture and was adamant that «we should not demand more from farmers because they have done everything and thanks to that effort and dedication our agriculture is competitive and we have the environmental seal, which is key because we farm in a sustainable way». The president also highlighted the fact that «we must defend plastic because thanks to plastic we are leaders. We recycle 98% of the plastic used in agriculture and we use it in a sustainable way».
Institutional declaration in favour of the hunting of the partridge with a claim
The Plenary has raised an institutional declaration of the Provincial Council of Almeria with the aim that the hunting of the partridge with a claim is declared as an Asset of Cultural Interest of Andalusia in its category of activity of ethnological interest.
The Provincial Corporation has agreed to support the application promoted by the Andalusian Hunting Federation to have partridge hunting declared an Asset of Cultural Interest by the Ministry of Culture of the Andalusian Regional Government due to the cultural values that are manifested in it and its relationship with the territory, which is reproduced through processes of learning and intergenerational transmission and persists in the collective memory of the groups for whom these values have a special significance.
Finally, the Plenary of the Provincial Council of Almeria has also approved the motion for the creation of segregated cycle lanes on provincial roads in Almeria.