Redován to suspend payment of the terrace tax for bars, restaurants and cafés

  • The City Council will take this measure to the Plenary Session on 4 February to help hotel and restaurant owners in the face of the economic effects of Covid-19.

The Redován Town Council has announced the suspension of the payment of terrace installation fees for bars, restaurants and cafes in the municipality for the coming year 2021, which will be approved in the Municipal Plenary on 4 February. This measure was already adopted by the Council of Redovan last May and is now being extended to help, as far as possible, entrepreneurs in the sector. The councillor for the Treasury, Adrián Ballester, recalled that the hotel and catering industry has been severely affected throughout the year due to the pandemic, but that, “with the entry into force of the latest measures decreed by the Generalitat Valenciana, it is going to be even more affected, having to close its establishments”.

The suspension of the tax will come into force once the Plenary has provisionally approved it. It will come into effect from mid-March, and the owners of the premises will only have to pay the tax for the days they have set up a terrace from 1 January until that date, “without having to pay for the time during which the Generalitat has decreed the closure, and without having to pay anything else for the rest of the year 2021”, explained the councillor.

Last Wednesday saw the entry into force of new restrictions adopted by the Generalitat to curb the third wave of COVID-19 in the Valencian Community. These measures include the closure of hotel and catering establishments, except for those establishments that can offer take-away or pick-up service on the premises. These measures are completed with the closure at 18:00 hours of commercial premises and surfaces, except for those establishments dedicated to the essential commercial activity of food, hygiene, pharmacies, orthopaedics, opticians, hairdressers and sale of pet food.

“As a government team, we are obliged to support our shopkeepers and hotel and restaurant owners in everything we can, and after the last year, any help for this sector is not enough,” said Ballester. In this way, “from the Town Hall we continue working and considering proposals to be able to help them and make this situation as bearable as possible”, he added.

For its part, the municipal head of Trade and Markets, Maite Martinez, also stressed the importance of supporting local trade “as much as we can”, encouraging residents to consume, whenever possible, in shops and businesses in Redován. To do this, and as she has indicated, “it is necessary to comply with the indications and check in advance if the establishment offers a home delivery service to avoid crowds and the accumulation of people, try to be proactive and make purchases before 18:00 hours, and always complying with all health safety measures”.

Redován hires a technician to draw up the Municipal Flood Action Plan

  • The City Council will also update the current Municipal Territorial Emergency Plan to deal with possible episodes of storms

Redován Town Council will update the current Municipal Territorial Emergency Plan and will also draw up a new Municipal Flood Action Plan, as announced by the Councillor for Safety and Emergencies, Adrián Ballester. These plans will be drafted by the Senior Technician in Emergency Coordination and Civil Protection who has recently been hired by the Consistory of Redovan through the Emcold programme of the Valencian Employment and Training Service (Labora), a programme to promote employment in collaboration with local corporations, which has been endowed with a grant of 17,777 euros.

The new emergency technician has already joined the staff of the Consistory and will carry out the drafting of these plans during the six months of his contract. In this way, as Ballester has indicated, “we will be prepared to be able to prevent any type of risk in the event of floods, earthquakes or fires, and to deal more efficiently with future emergency situations to avoid possible consequences as far as possible”.

Both the Municipal Territorial Emergency Plan and the Floods Plan will provide a breakdown of all the climatological, environmental, population and infrastructure characteristics of Redován, as well as a description of the possible risks, both natural and man-made, that may occur in the municipality. “It also includes the regulations to be applied in these situations, as well as the structure, organisation and operation of the plan, together with its different phases and procedures for action,” explained the councillor.

In this way, “the municipality of Redován will be better prepared and organised for possible emergency situations, as was the case with the 2019 floods caused by the DANA, which we all remember for their devastating devastation”, explained the councillor for Emergencies, who added that “the Redován Town Council continues to work and prepare various actions and projects in the municipality to deal with future temporary episodes”.

Redován once again complains to the Orihuela Health Department about the lack of medical staff in his office

  • The Consistory transmits the complaints it receives from users due to the saturation of the service to the heads of the Conselleria

The Mayor of Redován, Nely Ruiz, has once again expressed her discontent with the Orihuela Health Department over the conditions in which the health service is being offered in the local doctor’s office. As the first mayor explained, “the two paediatricians and four doctors that the centre should have according to its characteristics and the population it serves have been reduced to only two doctors, also reducing the number of nursing staff”.

Ruiz has indicated that this deficit is due to the fact that “in the face of requests for holidays or sick leave, the Orihuela Health Department and the Regional Ministry of Health do not replace the health personnel as there are no doctors available in the area’s job centres”, which is why there has been an increase in the number of patients and the consequent saturation of the service. “This translates into insufficient user care, a situation which has already been occurring in our centre and which we have been denouncing for several months now”, insisted the Mayoress, who is in permanent contact with those responsible for the Orihuela Health Department, with whom she maintains a collaborative relationship.

For this reason, and since September, the Redován Town Hall has contacted on several occasions the Health bodies responsible for managing the centre, such as the Director of Primary Care, Rosario Sansano; the manager of the Orihuela Health Department, Miguel Fayos, or the Councillor for Health, Ana Barceló. With regard to the Councillor, the Mayoress has sent several letters to the Health Minister, but has not received a reply. “Our doctors are still overcrowded, they do not have time to make all the telephone enquiries due to the accumulation of patients, and the users of the service do not stop complaining to us as they find a very deficient service”, said the first mayor.

In addition, “it should be remembered that this situation is occurring during a pandemic and, at present, during an upsurge in the cases of Covid-19”, said Ruiz, “which unfortunately does not allow for good management of the situation and is a factor that can have a great influence on the increase in cases”. The Town Hall of Redován has been informed of several neighbours who have been in contact with confirmed positive cases, “who already have symptoms that are compatible with the virus, and who have been waiting for five days to be contacted from the clinic to be able to take the PCR test”, explained the mayor. Likewise, the mayor indicated that her government team “is not going to give up on this issue, demanding what is fair and what we are entitled to as a population, always in order to preserve the health of all the citizens of Redován”.

Redován Local Police warns of the danger of fire caused by the dumping of fire debris in the container

  • The deposit of materials such as ash, coal or embers from cookers and fireplaces without being properly extinguished is not permitted and can lead to fines of up to 750 euros

Avoiding the risk of fire is the objective of the Redován Local Police, which warns of the increase in the number of rubbish containers that have been burnt in recent days by the dumping of ashes, coal or embers from cookers and chimneys in the municipality’s homes. As reported by the Councillor for Public Safety, Adrian Ballester, these materials “are being deposited in the rubbish containers without first checking that they are completely extinguished, which increases the risk of fire and the consequent danger to nearby homes, vehicles parked in the vicinity or forest areas,” he explained.

This practice, as well as involving the mobilisation of emergency and fire-fighting resources to extinguish the fire, entails considerable costs for both the Fire Brigade and the Town Council in replacing the damaged containers, since “there have already been four such fires in the last week”, as Ballester indicated. The Local Police reminded the public that the municipal ordinance of coexistence, cleanliness and decoration of the public thoroughfare of Redován establishes the prohibition of “depositing lit materials in rubbish bins and containers”, cataloguing it as an infraction that can lead to sanctions of up to 750 euros together with the obligation to repair the damage caused.

The Councillor for Public Safety wanted to thank the public in advance for their collaboration in this task, adding that, in this way, “situations of risk for everyone can be prevented that can be easily avoided by following some simple instructions”.

From the Local Police Headquarters and the Redován Town Hall we ask for caution when disposing of embers from cookers and fireplaces and not to throw them into the organic waste container, as embers can retain heat for several hours. That is why “it is recommended that we have a bucket or metal container on our terrace or garden where we can deposit the ashes for more than 24 hours, immersing them in water to be completely sure that they cannot ignite and always with the precaution of not inhaling the smoke”, explained the councillor. In the case of the coal, it will be necessary to let it cool down for 48 hours, pouring water over the hot coal and carefully removing it to accelerate the cooling process.

Redován City Council pays out more than 39,000 euros in aid to shops, companies and self-employed workers

  • The amounts subsidised range from 100 to 2,000 euros for around thirty companies, with the help of the Diputación de Alicante

Redovan City Council, through the departments of Finance, Legal Services and Employment, has made effective the payment of emergency aid for SMEs and self-employed to twenty-eight companies, shops and self-employed in the municipality, which in recent months have been affected in their economic activity by the consequences of the health crisis produced by the Covid-19. The total amount of this aid is ?39 127 and has been granted directly thanks to a subsidy from the Diputación de Alicante.

These grants are in addition to the various subsidies received to promote recruitment in the municipality, as indicated by Maite Martinez, head of the area of Employment of the Consistory Reddovanense, “since our purpose as a government team is to help in any way we can to anyone who needs it. Martinez recently announced the hiring of two concierges through the ECOVID program call for people over 30 years who are unemployed as a result of the situation arising from the Covid-19. The mayor of Employment also said that “we will continue to apply for all those grants to which we can adhere,” adding that “we are already working towards next year to continue helping the most vulnerable groups in the municipality.

“The health crisis caused by the Covid-19 has affected all areas of society, making it also our economic engine as a municipality, businesses and traders,” said Adrian Ballester, councillor of Finance. In this way, “one of our priorities as a Town Hall in this situation has also been to protect, preserve and support these pillars of our productive and social fabric”, he added. Likewise, the Councillor for Legal Services, José Nájar, stated that “the objective has always been to minimise the impact as much as possible and to ensure that, once the health alarm is over, economic activity in the town is boosted as soon as possible”.