Talking of the bomberos (firemen), there was an article in the Ideal newspaper on the 7th of May entitled: Almuñécar firemen have to use the municipal cemetery as their fire station.
Whereas the situation might appear even comical, it does make plain a disconcerting lack of funds for this very necessary service. Apparently, the firemen have been using the municipal gravedigger’s residence for almost two years now.
The PSOE denounced this situation (the IU were obviously taking a breather) and have demanded that the Mayor gives the go ahead for the project that includes a fire-service building in the municipal workshops area. The Head of the local PSOE, Francisco Prados criticises the Mayor for not having invested any of the two million euros received from the provincial authorities, nor any of the two million set aside by the Town Council in 2004 for a municipal fire station.
Furthermore, Sr Prados warns that the number of existing fire personnel is insufficient for a town with 20,000 inhabitants of Almuñécar and La Herradura – without going into the bloated summer population or its obligation to supply a fire-fighting service for the villages in Río Verde (Jete, etc).
Sr Prados points out that back in 2003 there was already a project for a building that would contain the fire station, Local Police and Protección Civil, next to the still inexistent bull ring in the P-4, next to the main road. He added that when Benavides came back into office the following year, he scrapped that project and had a new one drawn up, placing the fire station next to the municipal workshops, which hasn’t materialised, either.
Finally, he pointed out that the municipal budget for 2004 earmarked 180,000 euros for the fire-station, then 680,000 euros in the 2005 budget, just over a million in 2006 and a further 800,000 euros in 2007, all of which for a project that has never got past the planning stage. To add to these figures, there was also a grant of 400,000 from Unespa and 171,281 euros from the provincial consortium of fire-services. Therefore, Sr Prados concludes sarcastically, with 2.5m euro, Almuñécar should be in possession of the best-equipped fire station in the province…