DOLON’S BUSY WEEK

It's been a busy week for Torrevieja's Deputy Mayor Eduado Dolon. Fresh from his trip to Valencia to officially receive the backing of Franciso Camps and the Partido Popular as Torrevieja's candidate for mayor, his official announcement of such at Salones Bahia Costa attracted over 1,500 supporters.

Even on a wet and windy night, such was the overwhelming support for Donon, that hundreds had to turned away from the venue, as it was just not big enough to accommodate everyone.

Although he's not officially on the campaign trail just yet, duty calls and this week was a busy one with visits to the construction of the new Sports Pavilion, photos with the municipal Sports teams, touring the Conservatory of Music, planting a few trees, attending attractions and events while still working away as Councillor for Culture at the Town Hall.

Of course, there are plenty of other things to keep him busy behind the scenes but getting out and about and hearing what residents propose to make Torrevieja an even better place to live, is still high on his list of priorities.

This week the PP also issued their first election brochure, in English and Spanish, outlining their achievements over this term of office and in part, highlighting their continued vision for the future. To follow will be their election manifesto and list of candidates for office, which this year totals 29.

The new brochure deals with a number of very important issues, namely: health, culture and festivities, environment, commitment to the hamlet of La Mata, sports, infrastructure, education, youth, commerce, business, social welfare, employment plus an outline of the party's continued commitment to further improving Torrevieja for everyone.

As in all political campaigns, to run a negative program stating what others have done wrong, is always tempting and often the sign of a political campaign that is not based on stressing what a party has to offer its citizens but just dwelling on the past. Until now, little has been said of what the PP actually think of Prime Minister Zapatero.

The new brochure, entitled ‘municipal management' outlines just a few important points of how the National PSOE led coalition government has failed Torrevieja or to put a stronger slant on it, discriminated against the city!

Those who are interested can pick up one of 5,000 brochures and read the details for themselves but in essence it points out just the facts that; Zapatero lied to the city of Torrevieja for almost three years, over the building of a National Police Station; In doing so, he's showed little regard for the safety and security of the city's citizens.

Torrevieja remains the only city in Spain with a population of over 100,000 without a National Police Station. Torrevieja has spent over three million euros preparing land and plans for the station but slowly, the number of Guardia Civil agents have dropped to crisis levels, as they expect to be relocated!

Crying about the crisis and financial difficulties, the PSOE said they could not afford to build the station but somehow managed to construct new National Police Stations in other towns of less than 100,000 residents, all of which just happened to be located in PSOE strongholds! A pure sign of discrimination against the safety of every citizen and visitor in Torrevieja!

A further sign of the city being placed to one side, is the issue of Tourism, which amounts to a major revenue stream. Zapatero however, sees it differently and even though an estimated 600,000 Madrid citizens have homes or holiday in Torrevieja, the PSOE continually refuse to even consider Torrevieja as a Tourism Municipality, resulting in a loss of three million euros in tax benefits annually!

The third point highlighted is that the PSOE only consider Torrevieja to have a population of 69,000 residents and not 104,540, thus denying the city around €35-million in municipal finances every year. In essence, because of the actions of the PSOE in Madrid, Torrevieja has seen an incredible shortfall of €280-million which could otherwise have been put to such use as the harbour project, new roads, drainage systems, libraries, international social centre, sports and leisure facilities, hotels, bus services, health facilities and others, simply because the national government has ignored Torrevieja as much as possible for their two terms in power!

There are other areas of PSOE actions that have impacted Torrevieja directly or indirectly, which have not been mentioned in the brochure. This includes the forced installation of the Desalination Plant, which is years behind schedule, as is the road-building project on the N332 through the city!

The new Social Services centre that lay finished but unused for almost 18-months and is still underused! The refusal of the PSOE to divert water from the Ebro Valley towards the Vega Baja and Murcia to supply the region with a much needed resource, especially for agriculture, plus further impacting a unique and valuable Tourism attraction by stopping the construction of the Relaxation Spa beside the Salt Lakes and the list goes on and on!

The new brochure aims to highlight the positive rather than dwell on anything negative. Eduardo Dolon considers himself as someone, who if elected mayor of Torrevieja, will serve all factions of the community; Spanish, International, party supporters or not, his vision is to make Torrevieja an even better place for all that call the city home, be it their permanent place of residence or for those that just spend part of the year here.

The Partido Popular's election manifesto is still being prepared and will be ready for launch next month when all parties officially come out fighting and go on the election trail. More information can be found at www.pptorrevieja.es.