The mayor of Murcia, José Ballesta, announced the launch in 2024 of an “aerobiological network” with 13 measuring stations that the City Council will approve and that will be distributed throughout the municipality. This system will allow the real air quality of Murcia to be measured, as well as pollen levels. Ballesta indicated that the City Council is developing this network in collaboration with scientists from the University of Murcia (UMU) and the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPCT).
The first mayor made these statements during his appearance before the media to address the objectives for the municipality of Murcia for next year 2024, after the traditional Christmas breakfast with the press.
When asked about the measures adopted to tackle pollution problems, the mayor stated that his government team is going to be “permanently” in charge of air quality in the municipality and defended that he has already adopted “advanced, avant-garde, absolutely” measures. “singular and unique” to address this problem. For example, the councilor recalled that the City Council has launched free transportation, the use of which, in fact, has increased by 70%. “That is, we will have solved something,” he added.
In the same way, he announced that traffic in the center of Murcia “has been greatly reduced” and recalled that the City Council has provided park-and-ride parking and a “free” bicycle service, while at the same time prohibiting the circulation of heavy transport and has paralyzed all works.
“Do you think the measures that have been applied seem few?” said Ballesta, who indicated that his government will be “permanently” concerned with this matter and is taking “risky, brave and, furthermore, very avant-garde” measures.
However, he asked not to contribute to “alarmism” because he recalled that “Murcia is a valley” and has a “very peculiar” atmospheric situation. He wanted to clarify that, at this time, the only problem in the municipality is with PM 10 particles, but the rest of the levels of polluting materials “are below” the thresholds.
Thus, he argued that the phenomenon of “thermal inversion is repeated every year” and “occurs throughout the world at this specific time.” In fact, he recalled that in December 2022 “there were more days of alarm than in 2023” in Murcia.
“And don't make me be bad, it's Christmas and I never want to mess with anyone,” concluded the first mayor, who did underline that his government team “is already planting trees and is going to plant many more.”
Mobility plan
When asked about the actions related to mobility, Ballesta acknowledged that it is a topic about which “a lot has been written and talked about.” Thus, he indicated that, in the last stage, his government team has put into practice “things that have not been done in any city.”
For example, he insisted that, if you look at any city in Spain or the world, “there is none” that has had transportation and bicycles “free for a month.” Likewise, he defended that “there is no city that has its park and ride facilities completely free.”
In the same way, he highlighted that Murcia has implemented the electric vehicle and already has electric buses, something that already exists in “some” cities, “but not in many.”
“That is, at this moment we are introducing elements to solve the difficulties of mobility,” according to Ballesta, who attributed the problems to a project that his government found “not only designed, but tendered and awarded.”
In this sense, he recalled that they have tried, first of all, to “finish all the works so that there are not many problems in the mobility aspect”, while at the same time they have introduced “elements that will solve the difficulties that we are encountering” in this area. In fact, he announced that the City Council is going to introduce “many more” elements to alleviate this circumstance.
“We are trying to solve the conflicts that we are encountering and providing initiatives, innovations and elements to improve mobility and solve the problems that we are experiencing lately in the city of Murcia,” according to Ballesta.
He defended that his government team is “adopting permanent decisions” on this issue and recalled that they are, in “many cases”, measures “that no one adopts” and that they are “advanced, avant-garde, absolutely singular and unique.”
He urged to review “any city in the world” to check “if they currently have the circumstances that we have in the city of Murcia for mobility and pollution problems.”
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