The Salobreña Town Hall has said ‘enough is enough’ over childrens’ sports freebies; one thing is to guarantee that the children of the town can enjoy good healthy sports and quite another that public funds are being spent so that their tracksuits can be dry-cleaned. And that was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back.
Nobody believes that providing every opportunity for young kids to play sports is going to be a money-maker for the to, but when it turns out that in just one year, a yawning debt of 600,000 euros is accrued, then something has to be done, the Mayor has decided.
Accordingly, the school sports setups are to be reined in and small charges will be handed on to the parents of the children. For example, there will now be a 30-euro, annual subscription fee. This was approved in a plenary meeting of the council with the socialist administration receiving the backing of the IU, the abstention of the PP and the votes against from the PA and PSI.
“It’s obvious that something had to be done; in the report there is an excessive cost for cleaning of 145,000 euros, plus 400,000 in salaries. There’s also a 53,000 electricity bill for the municipal swimming pool, where the solar panels are only of any use two months of the year,” said Councillor Cuello, concluding, “It’s clear that things are not going well.”
Another proposal made by the said councillor is that kids compete in local-area leagues, instead of being in a federation – this would produce a saving. Just to give an idea, on average it costs 600 euros a year just to put one child through the football school.
The PA and PSI voted against, because they disagreed with charging an annal subscription fee, as this would marginalise some children from low-income homes, but the governing party pointed out that there would be special considerations in such cases; i.e. discounted or free subscription.
“No child is going to end up without sports facilities in Salobreña because of a lack of funds, but people must understand that these things cost money to maintain,” said the Councillor for Sports.
(News: Salobrena, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)