The Madrid City Council has pressed an emergency button this Monday to deactivate the wave of protests in the run-up to the campaign: it has paralyzed the works of 12 new cleaning cantons in the periphery after months of mobilizations of residents in the peripheral neighborhoods, which have received the opposition support. The Councilor for the Environment, Borja Carabante (PP), has announced that they are studying alternatives to move them away from homes, but he will continue the works on four projects that he considers will not be so annoying.
The cantons are facilities that serve as parking and changing rooms for municipal sweepers and in some cases as a temporary garbage deposit on the way to the landfill. The Almeida City Council decided on the location of 15 of these facilities in 2021 as part of an ambitious plan to solve the discomfort due to dirt, endowing the contract for the Cleaning of Public Spaces (sweeping and washing down of streets) with an extra amount that made it in the most expensive tender in the municipal budget. A sixteenth canton was conceived in 2022 for the Urgent Cleaning Service (soccer matches or demonstrations) in Arroyo del Fresno, in the north of the capital, whose neighbors they found out last week “by chance”.
The residents of the neighborhoods affected by these new facilities have only learned of the existence of the site in recent months, as its construction began. They are concerned about the devaluation of their homes, as well as the noise and odors caused by these facilities. Their protests have been echoed in the news, a runrún that threatened to cloud the final stretch towards the May 28 elections, where Mayor José Luis Martínez Almeida is seeking re-election.
The City Council will maintain the construction of four that have already begun: the one on Calle Sinfonía, in Latina; that of Camino del Pozo del Tío Raimundo, in Villa de Vallecas; that of Santeras, in Vicálvaro, and that of Treseta street in Carabanchel.
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One of those that will continue to operate is the canton project located on Treseta street, in front of Islazul, the largest shopping center in the capital. Carabante has said that this canton is more than 250 meters from the nearest houses. Nor will one that is already active in La Elipa, east of the M-30, which has operated as a car park since the 1970s, but to which a waste transfer deposit was added in January. According to Carabante, they are installing some protective screens to reduce the nuisance to the nearby blocks of flats.
The dilemma that the City Council has is that it cannot send the concessionary companies away from the neighborhoods that they clean because it would make their work less effective and more expensive. The Environment delegate has promised to convene a working group on Wednesday with opposition groups to analyze the cantons “one by one” and study alternative locations. “The facilities are necessary, in the same way that fire stations or police facilities and other public facilities are necessary. And it is necessary to have it close to homes in most cases. Of course, we will take the necessary measures to reduce the inconvenience ”.
“In Madrid there are 116 cantons or cleaning facilities with practically no complaints in recent years,” said Carabante. “From the area, not only in this mandate, but also previously, measures have been taken to minimize the damage to the neighbors and these are facilities that basically do not have the majority of waste treatment or an activity regarding mobility relevant”.
Do you have information? Write to the author at fpeinado@elpais or via Twitter at @FernandoPeinado
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