PSOE calls for cleaning, pruning and an urban garden for Cortijo Grande

The Cortijo Grande neighbourhood needs reinforced cleaning, pruning, repair of deteriorated street furniture and better maintenance of pavements and public spaces. This is what the Socialist Municipal Group proposed at this Thursday's Plenary Session, as explained by its spokesperson, Fátima Herrera, who regretted the PP's vote against these proposals. The motion also included two specific actions: the improvement of the petanque court and the creation of an urban garden, designed to foster coexistence, leisure and the participation of residents in the life of the neighbourhood. Herrera defended at the Plenary Session a management focused on everyday problems as opposed to what she described as a policy of major works and announcements. «A city needs future projects, of course, but it also needs its streets to be clean, its trees to be pruned, its pavements to be safe and its parks to be cared for,» said the socialist spokesperson.

At the same Plenary Session, Herrera supported a motion by IU-Podemos-Los Verdes for the old railway station to be used as a space for the use and enjoyment of the people of Almería and for them to take part in the decision about its future. The socialist spokesperson called for an agreement between administrations to guarantee the conservation of the building, restored with investment from the Government of Spain, and expressed the PSOE's rejection of it being used for hospitality activities. Herrera also asked for the surroundings of the building to be protected from disproportionate new constructions and cited the remodelling of the Paseo, the works in the plaza del Educador and the change of use of the old Correos building as examples of a management that, in her opinion, does not sufficiently respect the city's heritage.

The socialist councillor Antonio Ruano regretted that the PP voted against another motion to strengthen support for homeless people. The initiative called for a progressive increase in and guaranteed stable funding for the Centro Municipal de Acogida, an assessment of its staffing and material needs and a strengthening of the social, psychological, legal and socio-labour support received by its users. It also proposed a single-door system to facilitate access to and coordination of shelter resources, as well as urging the Junta de Andalucía to restore the funding that would allow the reopening of the Cruz Roja shelter flats closed after the elimination of the corresponding subsidy.