You will have noticed, perhaps, that there was a bit of work on the Avenida de Andalucía going on towards the end of February – this was repair work on a section that had already been finished.
The problem was and still is that the new road surface (made from bricks) is porous, unlike the previous tarmac surface, which lets the rainwater through. This filtration has been causing considerable damp problems with the businesses along the left hand right hand side, as you go down the avenue. The Internet Café, for instance, which is just below Mari y Miguel’s meson, has plaster falling off and damp invading the power sockets.
The second fault with the new design is, as there is no curb, rainwater actually flows into the premises that have no raised thresholds – again, as is the case of the cyber café, which has been flooded out on six separate occasions since the rains began.
The IU brought these problems to the attention of the Town Hall and we also went round and chatted to the affected businesses. The repair work, therefore, appears to be in response to the IU’s press release. Whether it was motivated by this or was done off their own backs, so to speak, the IU has since congratulated the Town Hall on reacting swiftly – it remains to be seen if it has been effectively, as well as swiftly.
Although the IU congratulated the Town Hall, it didn’t lose the opportunity to do a spot of political sniping, pointing out that it was a pity that the Town Hall did not respond when the defects were first brought to their attention, but it must be pointed out that it has been bucketing it down since then, so there has hardly been the chance, really.
However a more than justified criticism made was that the municipal inspectors should have been there to make sure that the construction company did their job correctly – which it evidently hasn’t. As the IU points out, it is the obligation of the said inspectors and the Council of Public Works to make sure work is being carried out according to the project.