The general secretary of the PSOE in Algeciras and spokesperson for the City Council, Rocío Arrabal, has urged the municipal government of Landaluce to “stop laughing at people and admit that if the revenue in the city has increased it is, fundamentally, due to the tax increase that began to be applied as soon as 2024 began, and which the PP hid during the last electoral campaign, so that it would not take its toll at the polls”. Likewise, the socialist leader has urged the mayor to “work” and “worry more about Algeciras and not so much about Gibraltar, more about the failures of the Junta, which are many, and less about trying to confront, at all hours, with the central Government”.
Regarding the economic data that have been released this week, Arrabal has considered it “ridiculous that they try to make the residents of Algeciras believe, with the corresponding photo, that more will be collected because an agreement has been signed with the Provincial Council. However much they deny it, the reality is what it is: that the Landaluce tax increase means 5 million euros more in revenue, at the expense of the pockets of the people of Algeciras, and that only the increase in the IBI, of 12.5%, already means collecting 3.5 million euros more,” warns the socialist spokesperson, who in the plenary session next Friday will again ask Landaluce and his delegate for Finance to “stop taking the piss out of people.”
Regarding Landaluce’s statements in recent days, Arrabal has urged him to “stop using his position in the Senate in the media to divert attention” and that “here, in Algeciras, we talk about other things, and not about the real problems that the city has, which are many and about which the mayor does not seem half as worried as he seems to be about Gibraltar.” “It is right that he is worried, although the negotiation of the agreement is in good hands, what is not right is that he uses this matter as a smokescreen, as a trump card to confront the Government of Spain every time he is interested in distracting attention from everything that is being done wrong in Algeciras.”
“I wish we saw Landaluce as concerned about the state of the mistreated Public Health in Algeciras and the rest of the region, with patients waiting a year for an operation or an appointment with a specialist, or for the delays in the construction of the La Bajadilla outpatient clinic and other health centres, or for the strike of the hospital cleaning workers, whom we have not yet seen him show his support for, as the mayor of La Línea has done,” Arrabal lamented, recalling that “we have not seen the local president of the PP demand that the Junta de Andalucía comply with any of the numerous announcements made in recent times, but which are going at a snail’s pace, such as the Paco de Lucía Professional Music Conservatory, which he seems to no longer ask about, the City of Justice, or the paralysed project of the El Cobre Service Centre, to name just a few.”
The PSOE spokesperson also encouraged Landaluce to “worry less about Gibraltar and more about the maintenance of the schools in Algeciras, which have started the school year with deficiencies, starting with the Alfonso XI, which has been waiting for years for the repair of a wall that is threatening to fall down; or for the wall of the Cortijo Vides park, which is also at risk of collapsing and with the street closed; or for the broken concrete slabs in La Juliana, which are also going slowly; or for them to start fixing all the impassable sidewalks once and for all and for all the broken containers to be replaced, which cause dirt and the proliferation of bugs and rats.”
“When he is in the Senate, or walking around Madrid, he should talk about Gibraltar and whatever else he deems appropriate, but when he is in Algeciras, he should dedicate his half-day of work to solving the problems we have here, which are many, and he should remember that work is more than just taking photos and more photos,” concluded the socialist leader.
