On 15 January 2021, Pratdip Town Council approved the municipal budget for 2021.
During the meeting, several budget items and projects directly concerning Les Planes del Rei were discussed: maintenance of the Casal, the water network, the swimming pool, the wastewater treatment plant, street lighting and the rollout of fibre-optic internet.
The budget was approved unanimously by the six councillors present.
Several budget items for Les Planes del Rei
In a communication sent to residents after the council meeting, Avança Pratdip detailed the amounts and projects planned for Les Planes del Rei.
According to this document, the budget included, among other items:
- €1,500 for maintenance of the Casal in Les Planes del Rei;
- €1,000 for electricity at the Casal;
- an open budget item for maintenance and repairs to the water network, with a minimum amount of €500, which could be increased depending on needs;
- €5,000 for water tankers;
- €11,000 for maintenance of the two municipal swimming pools in Pratdip and Les Planes del Rei;
- a project concerning the wastewater treatment plant in Les Planes del Rei;
- a street-lighting project in Les Planes del Rei;
- a fibre-optic rollout project for the entire municipality, including Les Planes del Rei.
No final amount had yet been allocated to the wastewater treatment plant or street-lighting projects. Avança explained that both projects were still at the study and preparation stage and that expenditure could be approved once the costs had been determined.
The wastewater treatment plant project confirmed at the council meeting
The official minutes of the meeting confirm that the wastewater treatment plant in Les Planes del Rei was discussed during the budget debate.
Glòria Moreno asked the mayor about the existence of two budget items relating to wastewater treatment plants. The mayor replied that one concerned Pratdip and the other Les Planes del Rei, adding that the project for the Planes treatment plant was being prepared.
In its communication to residents, Avança also stated that the Diputació was to study whether it would be preferable to repair the existing facility or build a new one. At that stage, no final solution had yet been decided.
Avança votes in favour of the budget
During the council meeting, Glòria Moreno noted that several measures had been planned for Les Planes del Rei and announced that she would vote in favour of the budget.
In the document subsequently distributed to residents, Avança described these allocations as a positive, although still modest, change in the attention being given by the Town Council to Les Planes del Rei.
The group explained that it had voted in favour in order to support the announced projects, while stating that it would continue to monitor their implementation: opening and maintenance of the Casal, maintenance of the water network, street lighting and the wastewater treatment plant project.
Municipal works had already been carried out before 2021
Avança’s communication presents the 2021 budget as an important development in the municipal attention given to Les Planes del Rei.
The official council minutes nevertheless provide an interesting qualification.
In response to Glòria Moreno, the mayor stated that work had already been carried out in Les Planes del Rei in 2020 without necessarily appearing under that name in the budget. He referred in particular to the firebreak and work related to the swimming pool.
It is therefore more accurate to view the 2021 budget as a stage when several measures concerning Les Planes del Rei became more clearly visible in the municipal budget debate, rather than as the absolute beginning of municipal intervention in the residential development.
Municipal spending and legal responsibilities: two different issues
At the time, Avança interpreted these budget items as a sign that maintenance of the water network, certain street-lighting works, the Casal and other facilities would now be taken on by the Town Council.
These budget allocations do indeed show financial and operational involvement by the Town Council in several matters concerning Les Planes del Rei.
However, they do not by themselves establish a general and definitive legal transfer of all responsibilities relating to the infrastructure of the residential development.
In simple terms: including an expense in the municipal budget means that the Town Council plans to fund or carry out an action. It does not automatically settle the legal question of the formal handover of the residential development or future responsibility for each item of infrastructure.
A municipal civic ordinance
During the same meeting, the Town Council also unanimously approved the initial adoption of a new civic ordinance.
Glòria Moreno specifically asked whether the ordinance would also apply to Les Planes del Rei.
The ordinance then had to follow the statutory public consultation procedure before entering into force definitively.
What the council meeting of 15 January 2021 shows
This meeting provides an interesting reference point in the recent history of Les Planes del Rei.
It shows that several recurring issues affecting the residential development — water, sanitation, street lighting, community facilities and telecommunications — were by then explicitly part of the municipal budget debate.
The amounts remained modest and several projects were still at the study stage, but the official council minutes and Avança’s communication make it possible to document precisely which issues were on the agenda at the beginning of 2021.
Jim – La Tribune de Planas
Communication from Avança Pratdip to the residents of Les Planes del Rei
Document distributed after the municipal council meeting of 15 January 2021.
