No Bus Station for Motril?

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On the 3rd of December 2010 the regional Delegate for Public Works, Nieves Masegosa, appeared in Motril bearing the project for the new, and much needed, bus station. At the time it finally seemed that all the red tape and stumbling blocks had been removed. She announced that during the first quarter of 2011 a contract would be up for bidding and the actual construction work would commence on the chosen site of Vadillo.

The first part of the promise was fulfilled; i.e., it was put out to tender and in April 2011 the contract was awarded, but since then, nothing… there’s nothing there on the projected site and no construction machinery has ever appeared.

The contract had been awarded to CONTRAT, Ingeniería y Obras S.A., having a 15-month completion time to actually erect the building. The budget was 1,7m euros. A deal had been reached between the Junta and the Motril Town Hall whereby the Junta would pay for the project, but the Town Hall had to sort out the access and entrance roads. The bus station would have twelve inside platforms and two external ones for municipal buses. This was all going to generate 26 jobs; 15 direct and eleven related ones.

Now it’s the coalition partners of the Regional Government, the IU, that control Public Works and the latest statement issued from their office has shattered any remaining optimism: “The bus station is awaiting funding availability.”, or in other words, there is no money for it.

The Mayor of Motril says that on three different occasions funds for the project have appeared in the yearly Andalusian budgets, only to disappear, and she considers that if the money did exist and has been spent elsewhere, then it is tantamount to a theft against the people of Motril.

Editorial Note: It’s good that the new PP Mayor has found something to champion, seeing as, seemingly, the hitherto zeal put into calling for the completion of the A-7 autovía evaporated once the PP gained control of the Central Government and thus, control of A-7 funds.

(News: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)