the mayor of Garachico, Jose Heriberto Gonzalez (CC)has been suffering for months from the consequences of the retirement of the municipal secretary, the shortage of qualified nationals and the complex administrative bureaucracy that, in the case of municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants, the majority with a shortage of personnel, becomes a real brake on services and projects. The latest victim of these shortcomings is the municipal swimming pool, which still closed in the middle of July.
Staff losses and the implementation of a new computer system have not helped speed up this procedure either, acknowledges González, who already sees the light at the end of the tunnel in this case. He regrets the delay and the inconvenience caused to the residents and visitors of the town and port, and apologize. «The bidding procedures for the maintenance of the swimming pool and the lifeguard service are already being finalized, so we hope that, if everything goes well, in the week that begins on Monday, July 18, we can open it“, get moving.
The Garachico pool It is usually only opened between spring and summer, since in autumn and winter the risk of storms and low temperatures make its continued use unfeasible. “When the summer season ends, we remove all the machinery from the pool and the elements that can be damaged by the waves. Its maintenance cost is high and it would be economically unfeasible to keep it open all year. and deal with the damages that, on a regular basis, are generated by maritime storms in Garachico. It is already a deficit installation in summer, due to its popular prices, so keeping it operational in winter would be directly a ruin ». As for its staff, only the concierge or security guard is on staff, so lifeguards and those in charge of daily pool maintenance must be hired.
Following the recent retirement of the secretary and the changes in this position and in that of comptroller-treasurer, the Municipality of Garachico works to catch up after a period of real administrative slowdown. “The bureaucracy suffocates the smaller municipalities and the legislation does not allow us to hire the necessary personnel to unblock some of the situations that we suffer daily,” laments the nationalist mayor.
The statute of small municipalities
José Heriberto González (CC) considers it essential that in Spain the so-called statute of small municipalities be unblocked, those towns with less than 5,000 inhabitants that throughout the country suffer added difficulties imposed by the legislation. «The big cities already have their solutions, but the small ones are as we are. Drowned by bureaucracy and lack of staff. I understand that in this country there will be more important matters to attend to, but the residents of these municipalities have the same rights as the rest. The issue of national qualifications is bloody and affects us especially, but also other legal measures such as, for example, preventing us from hiring something as basic as an advisor.
