As political parties prepare for the municipal elections in May it is clear that the votes of UK residents could be one of the deciding factors as to who represents Calasparra for the next political term.
With just over 10,000 residents and a solid Socialist majority (PSOE) throughout the democracy the elections might not seem exactly wide open. However, at the last municipal elections the Left Coalition failed to secure representation by just one vote and the opposition PP made inroads into the governing party’s majority for the first time in history.
As the population of Calasparra has hit the 10,000 mark there are also more representatives to vote for as the quota goes up by five, from 13 to 17.
The NEXOnr webpage wants to help voters make an informed judgment and to find out what the different political parties will do for example: about stray and abandoned dogs or how they will make residents feel more secure in their homes or how they will protect the natural environment around the town and a large etc.
Many questions for the three political parties have already arrived via our email: nexocalasparra@yahoo.es. We will translate them and send them onto the political parties by email and we will publish the questions on the webpage.
We have asked the parties to respond within 48 hours once the questions have been published on this webpage. If they do so we will print all three answers simultaneously in the spirit of fair play. However, if only one or two of the parties have responded by the 48 hour deadline we will not print the responses of the other parties to this question. We will simply print which of the political parties failed to respond to the question and leave readers to draw their own conclusions.
This is your chance to ask the people who want to represent you how they will resolve outstanding problems or make commitments on certain issues which are important to you. Just send your question to NEXOnr webpage on nexocalasparra@yahoo.es and we will translate it and send it on. Please see previous article in Local News on this website for more guidance on this section.
Here are the first questions NEXOnr has received from readers:
Question One
Taken as read that we have numerous dogs and cats that live in the streets and/or have been abandoned in our town and that the Dogcatcher Service only visits the town once a week, which seems to me to be both uneconomic and ineffective, I would like to know if any of the political parties have concrete plans for resolving this problem. For example, would any of the political parties support the idea of organizing a free neutering service for pets owned by residents of the town? A similar scheme has been in operation for a number of years in the UK and has proved economic and, to a large extent, has resolved the problem of stray animals.
Question two
Here are few photos of the state of the river Argos near our house, since the river banks have been «cleaned up». Unfortunately now all the rubbish in the river is on full show, and the weeds etc they cut down have just been left to clog up the river. What plans do the political parties have to keep the river banks clear of rubbish and to educate the visitors to respect public spaces?
