Torrenueva and Carchuna-Calahonda fought for a long time to gain administrative independence from Motril, eventually achieving it, albeit to a semi-autonomous degree, but now with the Government cuts, their independent state may be very brief, indeed.
The said savings to the administrative costs of Spain will mean, amongst other areas, 3,725 small-town councils (Entidades Locales Menores, or ELA‘s) being eliminated. With this number are the eleven such municipal councils that exist within our province, Granada. Torrenueva obtained its independence in 1987 and Carchuna-Calahonda in 2005.
The leaders of these two local councils, Manuel Carrascosa (Independent councillor – Torrenueva) and Concepción Abarca (PP – Carchuna-Calahonda) have vowed to oppose and resist this measure from their respective towns – “tooth and nail,” they promised.
Although the leader of Carchuna belongs to the same party that is in power in Madrid, she says that she opposes the loss of independence because under the present autonomous arrangement, the lives of local residents has improved, thanks to being able to manage themselves rather than relying on Motril. She says that Carchuna-Calahonda doesn’t cost Motril or the Central Government a penny extra, as they administer their own locally raised taxes – the only thing that they don’t have is a local police force. She considers that their local administration does more with less.
PP Mayoress of Carchuna-Calahonda says that her party is wrong to take this course of action, expressing her hope that the PP will rectify its stance on the issue. “We decide what we are going to do with our budget in accordance to what our citizens say, because they are the people that vote for us,” she said, “we’re more realistic with our budget than the big Town Halls; we know our financial limits.”
A look at the budget of these two independent entities gives the following:
Carchuna: annual budget, 2,900,000 euros; debt 500,000 euros; population 4,000; municipal workers 15. Provides all social services except policing and urban planning. The Mayor receives a salary of 1,518 euros per month. She says that she works all the time, even when taking the kids to school, because she is in constant contact with her fellow citizens.
Torrenueva: annual budget 2,000,000 euros; debt 1,000,000 euros; population 4,000; municipal workers 4 public functionaries and 35 temporary workers. We don’t posses a figure for his salary – he has been the Mayor since 1999. Before, he says, Motril took the taxes generated in Torrenueva and spent them on Motril. Since independence the improvement to Torrenueva, he says, is tremendous. “Before we were ashamed of saying that we were from here because it was an abandoned mess – now we’re proud of it.”
His parting shot was, “A little advice for Madrid; if their politicians worked as much as me but earned what I earn, then they would be making good savings.”
(News: Torrenueva/Carchuna, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)