Lighthouse project receives unanimous support in latest plenary session

Friday 27th August 2021 – XÀBIA AL DÍA with Mike Smith

The plenary session of Xàbia Council has given the green light to the project to convert the lighthouse complex of Cap de Sant Antoni into a public visitor centre, approving a budget of 1,087,124.50 euros to execute. The tender will also include a health and safety study and establishes a maximum execution period of eleven months.

The PP spokesperson, Rosa Cardona, expressed her party’s position in favour of the project, highlighting the Populares enthusiasm to “supporting all those projects that have an educational purpose” such as the proposed visitor centre for the Cap de Sant Antoni Marine Reserve.

However, she pointed our that this project should not be a priority at the moment, saying that “we have to analyze the needs of our residents and allocate the resources and means to make life easier for them. We believe that more attention should be paid to the Historic Center than to the lighthouse, but that is already a matter of priorities for each one”.

Enrique Escrivá from C’s Xàbia congratulated the plenary session for approving the project “unanimously”, one that “will serve to turn the municipality into a showcase of sustainability and natural wealth”. However, like Cardona, he also stressed that there are “other structural projects have been put aside” and requested quarterly meetings of the local socialist government with the rest of the local political parties to keep them informed of their status.

Vicent Colomer (Compromís) also expressed the favourable vote of his party and claimed that the lighthouse project will become “a triumph of civil society which rejected the previous proposals” which included turning the complex into a luxury hotel. He asked about the involvement of the management board of the Parque Natural del Montgó in the preparation and scientific content of the visitor centre and if it will allow greater capacity in the car parks, not only for those who visit the complex but also those who head to the viewpoints, whilst taking into account environmental preservation issues.

Mayor José Chulvi responded by explaining that the issue of traffic and parking will be studied and regulated according to what is most suitable and safe. In response to Esrivà’s comments on other projects in the municipality, the mayor reminded him that, in addition to the lighthouse project, there are the renovation projects of the playgrounds in Freginal and Thiviers, the swimming pool, the administrative issues that have been addressed regarding the future industrial estate, and suggested that the C’s representative take advantage of the monthly commissions destined to deal with other questions and make the necessary consultations as appropriate. He added, however, that commissions are usually convened in an extraordinary way, this preventing the opposition from asking those questions outside of the agenda.

Responding to Rosa Cardona, the mayor said that the priority of the local government was not to concentrate on specific issues but to address those of the whole town and announced that Central Cinema renovation project will go out to tender in September. “We have a lot of resources available and what we have to do is allocate them”.

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