The residents of two of the northern neighborhoods of the capital, Montecarmelo and Las Tablas, through their neighborhood associations, have denounced the Madrid City Council for the construction of two cleaning cantons in residential areas of the Fuencarral-El Pardo district.
Specifically, the three neighborhood associations that work in both PAUs have requested a meeting with Borja Carabante, Delegate of the Government Area for the Environment and Mobility, in order to clarify the plans of the City Council and, where appropriate, promote the location of the cantons in industrial zones, far from residential areas.
Specifically, they are going to propose to the City Council that a complex be built for the two neighborhoods in the old Artillery Barracks, located on the M-603, since it is a very large plot and the future garage will be installed on it. of the buses of the Municipal Transport Company, according to the special rehabilitation plan for the area.
The cantons are centers where the cleaning trucks are kept and during the night they cause a lot of noise, since those hours are used to clean the vehicles. Also, sometimes plastic products are unloaded and generate very unpleasant odors in the area.
Specifically, it is expected that works will begin shortly in the canton of Montecarmelo on a City Hall plot, which is located next to the Infanta Leonor public school. There is also a restaurant, a company, a supermarket very close, but what most worries those registered in said neighborhood is that right in front of said plot there is a residential apartment building.
Fernando Mardones, president of the Montecarmelo Neighborhood Association, explains that “the associations and residents are not against the construction of this type of facility in our neighborhoods, but we do demand that areas and plots be found that do not affect health and to the quality of life of the neighbors”. For her part, Charo del Campo, president of the Montecarmelo Neighborhood Association, recalls that “years ago the City Council presented us with a location on a plot that, in our opinion, met the requirements to build the cleaning canton there. They even proposed us the plans with the distribution of spaces. We believe that you should recover that initial proposal and execute the construction of the canton there”.
For its part, the Las Tablas neighborhood association insists that the location of its canton, planned in an industrial area of ​​the neighborhood, although it does not have homes or businesses around it, is set in a vehicle exit area that already suffers from important daily withholdings due to the high traffic density that affects the entire area. Specifically, they want to build it at the end of Calle Isabel Colbrant, quite close to the black tower of BBVA, but in a more industrial area where at least there are no houses nearby.
In fact, the neighborhood is already home to a canton of this type and the residents of a new residential development in Pryconsa begin to complain about the noise at night, but the canton was operational before said development was recently completed and the flats sold. .
For Lorenzo Ãlvarez, president of the Las Tablas Neighborhood Association, “it is urgent that the City Council reconsider the location of these two cleaning cantons and commit to not building them next to residential areas, schools or communication nodes that already have significant problems of traffic and mobility”.
In the Carabanchel PAU, work has already begun on a canton with similar characteristics next to the Isla Azul shopping center. The specifications that govern the cleaning service of the city of Madrid in which the works were awarded dates from 2021.
