Calahorra is going to build a cover in the bullring with a budget that is close to 4 million euros. This Monday, the plenary session of the City Council initially approved the specific modification that these works require with the photos in favor of the Popular Party, Izquierda Unida and Vox.
The City Council, governed by a simple majority by the PP, has justified the action by underlining the objective of “converting the bullring into a multipurpose, covered and accessible space.” Councilor Antonio Mazo, who defended the proposal in the plan, explained that the roof that will be built “will make a kind of cup, which will protrude over the perimeter occupied by the bullring and will rest on the ground with columns. ”.
The popular councilor defended the action in the debate: “We believe in the project and we are moving forward,” and highlighted that converting it into a multipurpose space will serve “to take advantage of that square, which is heritage, and avoid other expenses,” in reference to the tent rental for some celebrations.
The mayor, Mónica Arcéiz, valued in the news conference presentation of this project: “Calahorra needs a multipurpose space to host concerts, sports competitions, bullfighting celebrations and other shows. “We need infrastructure like this, which allows us to hold various activities throughout the year, without depending on the weather.”
The PSOE, however, has branded the project “nonsense.” “The madness has no limits,” said councilor Rebeca Sáenz in plenary session, adding: “They bring us a specific modification so that their stubbornness of reforming the bullring can be carried out and it is a very expensive stubbornness.” .
And the base tender budget is 3,955,358.45 euros, which for the socialists is “a financially unsustainable investment and impossible to amortize.” Furthermore, the PSOE accused the Government Team of lying about the cost of this performance in the bullring. At the press conference to present the project, the mayor of Calahorra pointed out that the works will amount to 2,746,967.46 euros, a figure that corresponds, as this media has been able to confirm, to the material execution budget, without taking into account the percentage of general expenses, industrial profit and VAT.
“4 million euros for something expendable and that has been expendable for 100 years,” the socialist councilor reiterated in plenary session. Regarding the PP’s justification that the square was heritage, Rebeca Sáenz told them that “they did not show that love for the square years ago when they modified the PGM to destroy it and have a builder build homes.” Likewise, he recalled that the PSOE gave it protection as a heritage asset, so the roof project will need the approval of the Higher Heritage Council of La Rioja.
According to the calculations of the PSOE presented in the plenary session, with a base bidding budget of 4 million, “the amortization period would be 50 years and that taking into account the maximum capacity of 4,500 spectators, an impossible capacity because to be comfortable you need support and, therefore, eliminate half of the lines, reducing the capacity to 3,000 seats.” In fact, councilor Rebeca Sáenz then recalled how the PP, upon arriving at the Calahorra City Council a year and a half ago, rejected the works on the La Planilla sports complex “because they did not want to mortgage the city with an investment of 1.3 million in municipal facilities.”
For their part, both the councilors of Vox, Maite Arnedo, and that of Izquierda Unida, Óscar Moreno, who often facilitates the PP’s proposals to go ahead, did not intervene in the debate and voted in favor of the initial approval of modifying the General Plan to cover the Calahorra bullring with a budget of 4 million euros.
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