Murcia City Council will incorporate 30 mobility agents over the next year | La Verdad

It has taken the Murcia City Council almost a year to put together the Public Employment Offer (OEP) necessary for the creation of the new municipal body of mobility agents. This partial offer for the year 2024, approved this Friday, will allow the incorporation of thirty public employees who will carry out support tasks for the Local Police in matters of traffic regulation and control of the use of public roads, including their different exclusive and segregated lanes. These new positions will be filled through an internal promotion process.

Months ago, the City Council indicated that this promotion and reconversion proposal was aimed, in particular, at positions that, to a certain extent, have lost their purpose, as is the case with the orderlies. The intention is for the new agents to begin performing their functions during the year 2025, according to the spokesperson for the municipal government and deputy mayor, Rebeca Pérez, who could not provide further details on the dates. “The mobility agents are a commitment of the City Council and we understand that they will help a lot in the tasks carried out by the Local Police, showing this commitment to citizen security in a special year in which this body celebrates its 170th anniversary,” she added.

In total, the OEP includes 22 open-access positions for career civil servants and 81 vacancies for internal promotion. The former are intended, mainly, for Local Police officers, according to Pérez, while the latter include thirty new mobility officers, another 30 positions for multi-service assistants, as well as a Local Police inspector or sub-inspector.

Budget grows by 3%

On the other hand, the municipal budget will grow by 3% in 2025 to exceed 500 million in income and expenditure, as LA VERDAD announced last week. This was confirmed this Friday by the Councillor for Mobility, Economic Management and Contracting, José Francisco Muñoz, after the Governing Board approved the main lines of the accounts for next year. The income forecast already exceeded this figure in this year’s accounts. However, the disbursement was below what was received, given that it was necessary to generate a surplus of 10 million to reduce the enormous hole accumulated in the municipal coffers during the last few years.

According to Muñoz, these are the mandatory framework established by law and must be submitted to the Ministry of Finance’s platform before the end of September, “in order to define the main policies that will inspire the draft budget, establishing the position and, above all, the explanation of the stability objective.” “The 2025 budget will serve to relaunch the city project and reconcile Murcia with its identity, ensuring the completion of strategic projects, the consolidation of budgetary stability and economic balance, as well as the assurance and improvement of all public services, including public transport with the tendering of the new model,” added the councillor.

Among these projects, Muñoz mentioned two that have not yet materialised after years of work. One is the enhancement of the San Esteban site and the construction of the garden on the surface, for which “the work is still being finalised to formalise the agreement with the Autonomous Community and the Ministry”, added Pérez, highlighting that “two million euros have already been allocated this year to carry out the preliminary surveys for the construction of the Interpretation Centre”. “It has been a complex process, in which prices have had to be updated and very precise work with the restorers has had to be reviewed”, pointed out Pérez, to explain the repeated delays.

The second stalled proposal is the Metropolitan Park West, which is to be given a definitive budgetary boost in the 2025 accounts, “proceeding, after its approval, to its almost immediate tendering,” added the deputy mayor. Muñoz also pointed to other projects that will be included in said accounts, such as the rehabilitation of the Verónicas Market and the second phase of the Old Prison, given its multi-year financing, or heritage projects such as those of the Fortresses of the Wolf King.

The final recovery of underground areas will also be addressed, including the future underground bus station. The San Andrés station area will also be rehabilitated, among others. Another of the basic points of the new accounts will be the recovery of the Huerta heritage, in which projects such as the restoration of the Molino Armero or the Torre Falcón will be consolidated, as well as green paths and environmental programs. Likewise, maintenance and recovery programs of public spaces and infrastructures for the elderly and social, sports and cultural, as well as study rooms, schools and libraries will be promoted.

On the other hand, Muñoz stressed that the ratified Saneamiento Plan “will allow us to address the deficit of 76 million euros accumulated during the period of the previous government team over the next four years”, although it must be remembered that this figure is the one recorded at the end of 2023 and the change of municipal government took place in June 2023, so Muñoz also attributes this increase to the inertia generated during the socialist mandate.

“It is also expected that with the new accounts the debt will fall by 10 million and will be placed at 55%, which is a reduction of 15 points since the return of the PP to La Glorieta and which is far from the limit of 75% that the Ministry allows to operate freely,” added the councillor responsible for the economic area.