The Popular Party of Mataró has reached an agreement with the municipal government (ÇSC-MECP) to apply the main measures that were in its electoral program, and which will mean increased security, the review of some areas of the bike lane and an improvement in the cleaning of the city streets. Particularly noteworthy is the opening of an anti-squatting office to provide coverage to neighbors who suffer from these problems.
The Popular Party, with its spokesperson Cristian Escribano, has adopted this position to, as they claim, avoid a massive tax increase for 2024, which would have affected the citizens of Mataró. Initially, the government formed by PSC and En Comú Podem intended an increase in the IBI of between 9% and 12%, but finally, according to the signed pact it will be 7% by 2024 and the rest “only the CPI” according to Escribano. “With this,” he told La Vanguardia, “we have avoided a large increase now and the last two years of his mandate, without an increase,” an electoral strategy of the PSC that he said, “is already well known.”
With the votes of Junts, the popular ones affirm, the City Council had already assured the increase, and what the municipal group of the PP is doing with this agreement is to guarantee bonuses for the lowest incomes and for those families, who are having the worst time.
The most notable aspect of the agreement is the creation of an Anti-Squatting Office, intended to tackle the problems of illegal occupation that Mataró suffers, and put an end to this scourge that so detrimentally affects the lives of many residents of Mataró. An office that could be run by the popular spokesperson himself.
The agreement also includes reviewing some sections of the Mataró bike lane, an issue that has generated great controversy in the city, and adapting them better to the urban layout. Likewise, work will be done to expand the video surveillance camera system in neighborhoods such as Rocafonda, Cerdanyola and the Pla d’en Boet industrial area.
Escribano has declared that “these are not the accounts that the PP would present if we had the mayor’s office, but we have managed to influence them to move away from those that the PSC and Podemos would present alone.” The popular spokesperson also emphasized that this support “is not for the municipal government, but for the residents of Mataró” and assures that the party will continue to be a firm opposition that will supervise compliance with the agreements and ensure the good use of public resources.
The points of the agreement are the creation of an Anti-Squatter Office, increasing security in the neighborhoods and increasing video surveillance cameras; allocate more resources to cleaning all streets and neighborhoods; improve mobility by reviewing conflicting bike lane sections to improve circulation and parking; expand tax credits to low-income families; improve the Mataró Bus service by studying the extension of schedules and new lines and create a public space in memory of the victims of ETA terrorism.
Escribano stressed: “the easy political position would have been to oppose everything and criticize, but that would have meant that taxes would rise exaggeratedly, security would not be a priority and work would not be done to improve public services effectively as the PP demands. Therefore responsibility we could not allow it. The agreement with the government also includes measures to improve the service of the Mataró Bus and the cleaning service, the Mataró Neta, seeking to offer citizens quality services and a cleaner city.
Escribano has assured that “we will monitor compliance with everything agreed upon, and the neighbors can have the complete certainty of knowing that they have in us a guarantee to fight against the insecurity, crime and incivility that Mataró suffers.”
