Dénia council reviews summer season and clashes over housing ahead of winter
Municipal spokespersons in Dénia assessed the summer season and set out their priorities for the coming months, with housing emerging as the main point of friction between groups.
Dénia Town Council held a plenary session in which representatives from the different parties reviewed municipal management during the summer months and outlined their planned lines of work for the winter. Each spokesperson offered their own assessment of how the high season had gone and the services provided.
Socialist councillor Javier Scotto gave the summer management a high mark of 8 out of 10, saying it had been "much better than last year" thanks, among other factors, to improved mobility. In this regard, he highlighted the role of the coastal bus line, which was used by more than 100,000 people, and argued that "Dénia's success is also part of public services". The mayor, Rafa Carrió, from Compromís, took a similar line with a positive assessment, though he focused on housing as the municipality's biggest outstanding challenge, arguing that "a municipality cannot be a tourist destination if people cannot live there all year round".
From Gent de Dénia, Mario Vidal was more critical and gave a rating of 6, pointing to parking problems and the condition of the foot showers installed on the beaches as the summer's main shortcomings. The People's Party's Carlos Barona chose not to give a specific mark, though he highlighted that hotel occupancy reached nearly 100% during the summer months; nonetheless, he criticised the government team for a "lack of planning" in municipal management, citing as an example the traffic jams that built up on Fridays around the market on Calle La Vía.
For VOX, José Ronda acknowledged the good result of the D*NA Festival Gastronòmic and provided economic figures, such as the 1,057 new registrations with Social Security and the 68,000 users of the bus service during August. Even so, he criticised the lack of cleanliness in various parts of the town and the accumulated delays in projects such as the care home for the elderly or Torrecremada park.
Housing, the main point of disagreement
Access to housing was at the centre of much of the debate, with different approaches among the groups on issues such as declaring the area under tension, legal certainty for landlords and tenants, or the availability of public land for new developments. According to municipal sources, some of the projects pending implementation would depend on responsibilities that fall to the Valencian Community.
Despite the disagreements, the different groups expressed their intention to boost municipal activity over the coming months and to push forward with the measures that remain unresolved.