The City Council and the Provincial Council of Barcelona have modified the agreement, through an addendum incorporated by the mayor Jaume Collboni and the president of the provincial corporation, Lluïsa Moret, by which part of the money contributed by this entity to the participation of the Consistory in the consultation plan of the Network of Local Governments of the past mandate (2019-2023) they will be redirected to actions different from those initially planned. Specifically, the Provincial Council will partially finance a major city project, the redevelopment of La Rambla, and another of notable importance for Sarrià, the district library being built in the neighborhood’s main square.
The modification of the agreement was published on Tuesday in the Barcelona Municipal Gazette. City Council sources have explained that the change responds to a purely technical criterion to be able to execute the 2020-2023 agreement in its entirety, without losing a single cent of the resources committed by the Council to the municipality, which amount to 50 million euros for the previous term, when the socialist mayoress of l’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Núria Marín, presided over the provincial corporation and the commune Ada Colau was mayoress of the capital of Catalonia.
The Barcelona City Council has argued that the pandemic and the inflation associated with the war in Ukraine forced the delay of some of the projects that had to be financed in this way. These unforeseen events made it impossible to meet the deadlines set in 2020. For this reason, the City Council has negotiated with the Provincial Council the financial redirection towards other projects that were also underway, specifically the reform of the Rambla and the construction of the library from Sarrià-Sant Gervasi. It should be borne in mind that these two projects, like many other investments planned by the municipal government for this year, could be affected by the lack of new budgets from Barcelona City Council for this year (for now, those for 2023 have been extended ), a circumstance that should be resolved when the PSC closes a government pact.
There are eight projects in which the City Council will have finally injected the contributions of the Diputació de Barcelona. The new cultural equipment of Fabra i Coats stands out, due to the volume of investment, with the creation of the museum of interpretation of Work and the City; the completion of the creation factory and the Center for Contemporary Art; the adaptation of the Sant Andreu music school building; the redevelopment of the premises; the removal of asbestos from the spaces of the old factory, and the rehabilitation of the machinery and heritage of the boiler, electrical and sprinkler rooms. In total, 11.7 million euros financed by the Provincial Council out of a total project cost of 12 million.
There are other actions in which the Council has played the role of patron: the expansion and reform of the L’Illa sports hall (2.5 million financed by the entity chaired by Lluïsa Moret); the construction of the temporary pavilion in the Bederrida park (516,000 euros); the Espronceda Municipal Sports Center (3 million); the Sagrera Municipal Sports Center (1.68 million), and the replacement and improvement of the grass on several football fields, the cover of the Sant Jordi pool or the renovation of the outdoor pool at Trinitat Vella (4.58 million).
To these actions have been added those of the redevelopment works in the area of ??Colom and Santa Madrona, the first phase of the reform of the Rambla, budgeted at 8.54 million, of which the Provincial Council contributes 3.9 million, and the construction of the library in Plaça Sarrià, a project with a cost of 9.87 million euros to which the provincial corporation grants 1.92 million.
