Veïns de Parcent – Newsletter Nº 64 – 31st July 2007


On Sunday, 29th July 2007, the new altar in Parcent church was inaugurated in a ceremony attended by the Mayor and councillors, deputy Archbishop of Valencia, and invited priests.

The new rubbish contract is still being improved, we have ordered more recycling bins as they are overflowing by the time the twice-weekly collections arrive, thus we hope people will use the new bins and not leave bags of rubbish on the floor by the bins. If anyone experiences problems with their rubbish collection would they please let me know. The timetable for collection of unwanted items, normal household rubbish, and recyclable rubbish is posted on the Parcent website. www.parcent.es

The Town Hall is advertising a number of courses to start in the autumn. They are free, being paid for by a grant from the Mancommunidad. There are courses in Spanish, keep fit, handicrafts, memory exercises, and places still available for the computer courses. I have attached the Town Hall information letter but if anyone is interested please call by the Town Hall and leave your name and details. The groups and timetables will be flexible.

Parcent fiestas are nearly upon us, the first night with the presentation of the festeros is on 9th August. The fiesta programme is posted on the Town Hall website (still to be updated and improved, we plead patience!) in English. We would like to invite everybody to join in this year’s fiestas. If the dances are too late (midnight till 5 am!) there are daytime activities and the processions to enjoy. Festeros will be calling house to house selling the fiesta books. This is the annual 'fee' for fiestas and goes towards paying for the activities.


PLENO (council meeting)
A council meeting was held on Monday, 30th July 2007. Thank you to those who attended and apologies for not circulating the date more widely. The meeting was well attended, with the Mayor and all councillors in attendance and a full 'sala'.

The points debated and approved were as follows.

1. Approval of minutes of previous meetings.

2. Mayoral decrees made in the previous months.

3. Creation of local government commission.

4. Purchase of new mobile phones. This was followed by a heated debate as the Mayor pointed out to the opposition that they had not returned 4 mobile phones, including one purchased at the beginning of June after the elections. The opposition refused to reply, citing lack of information of the accusation so we are as yet no clearer on where exactly are the 4 missing phones.

5. Approval of Town Hall payments. This confirmed that the Mayor will not receive a salary from the Town Hall. He is to continue to be paid by his employers (The Post Office). It was also approved that there will be no payments for attendance of plenos. Payments for 'dietas', expenses for out of town journeys were approved at 50 Euros for half a day and 100 Euros for the whole day and payments for government commissions approved at 150 Euros. There was considerable debate over this issue, the Mayor pointing out that the Town Hall would save a considerable amount of money, which is necessary as the budget is extremely tight. The opposition contested the changes and voted against.

6. Approval of a taxi rank in Parcent, subject to guidelines.

7. Designation of members of Consell Agrari Municipal.

8. Approval of submission of grant for improving pipe-work for the water supply arriving in Parcent, with the aim of cutting present leakage by 25%.

9. Approval of submission for grant for increasing the size of pipes to allow for higher water pressure.

10. Approval of submission for grant for rural caminos.

11. Approval of agreement with Suma to enact a review of the 'catastro' of the village to ensure that all properties are correctly registered for council tax, both to make the payments fair for all and to make the paying of the tax easier for the citizens. This point was contested by the opposition who accused the government of an intent to raise taxes. The Mayor explained that general taxes were not to be raised for every householder. This measure is to make the system fairer for all by ensuring that each householder paid the correct amount for his property.

At the end of the session the administration took questions. A question was asked about an issue raised in the village, whereby adults accompanying children to the free swimming classes were asked to pay entrance fees if they later stayed to swim. This has been labelled our 'revolutionary tax'. The Mayor clarified that this was a fair request, that the Town Hall subsidised the swimming pool and classes. He went on to explain that next year the Town Hall would ask parents for a deposit for the swimming classes as a number of children did not attend and the Town Hall had to pay the costs for the lessons and insurance.

A second question was raised regarding the conduct of the pleno itself. It was pointed out that the pleno was in effect a debate between the Mayor and the opposition and the audience had trouble understanding what was going on. The Mayor replied that he agreed it would be better to take a little more time and explain each point before discussing and approving. The questioner also requested that the other councillors be given time to explain what they were working on in their particular areas of government and the Town Hall Secretary confirmed that this could be done in the questions section of the pleno. Jacqui Cotterill replied that the planned information bulletin would inform the citizens of the activities of each Councillor and that we planned to keep to our campaign promises of providing information and encouraging participation from the citizens.

End of session.

With regard to our information service: We have not yet been able to put into action our plans, at the moment I am doing what I can but in the autumn I plan to improve the Town Hall information service, both the website and monthly bulletins.

At present I am available at the Town Hall on Monday and Thursday evenings if anyone has any queries. Best wishes to all for August and hope you enjoy the fiestas. Next year we are planning a 'European' day and I look forward to us getting involved in showing our neighbours that we can plan a good party!

Jacqui Cotterill