New Policía Local Station For Centre Of Torrevieja

[Carl]

https://www.informacion.es/vega-baja/20 ... 03909.html

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Torrevieja City Council rents a premises for 47,000 euros a year to house a Policía Local station in the heart of the city.

The premises, covering approximately 700 square meters, will be located on Calle Joaquín Chapaprieta and will also require an investment in adaptation to accommodate the reception of complaints and probably the headquarters of the new traffic mobility agents.

The local governing board of Torrevieja City Council approved on Friday the lease of a three-story building with a basement at 17 Calle Joaquín Chapaprieta, between Calle Ramón Gallud and Calle Caballero de Rodas. The building will house new municipal offices and a Policía Local station in the heart of the city. The City Council will invest €47,000 annually in the lease, plus an additional amount, yet to be determined, for the necessary renovations, which will require a separate construction contract.

Feeling of security

The initiative, spearheaded by the local PP government, aims to project a greater sense of security in the heart of the town center — a key demand from some residents in the most populated area — beyond its potential effectiveness in daily operations. However, freeing up space also improves the current facilities of the main police station — located next to the CV-905, opposite Carrefour, more than two kilometers from the town center — following the growth in staffing over the past two years, which now numbers around 185 officers, including commanders. This will allow for the expansion of changing rooms and offices at the main station.

Pedestrian traffic

The Councilor for Security and Secretary of the Municipal Council, Federico Alarcón, reported that this action responds to the government team's objective "of continuing to strengthen citizen security by increasing the police presence in one of the areas with the highest pedestrian traffic and commercial activity in the city." The councilor clarified that he could not specify how many officers might be assigned to these premises because that is still under study. He did mention the possibility that, for example, the new group of twenty traffic officers could be based there. He also indicated that some services that currently require in-person visits to the existing headquarters, such as lost and found, could be consolidated there, and that there will be a dedicated area for receiving complaints.

Clothing store

The building, known for housing the Leftties brand of the Inditex group for some years, is located in a site considered "strategic" by municipal technical reports and by the Local Police department itself, "it has three floors and is in very good condition", so it will only be necessary to carry out interior adaptation and modification works to adjust it to the operational needs of the police service.

Alarcón highlighted that "the creation of this new station will bring the Policía Local even closer to the citizens, improving response capacity and increasing preventive police presence in the urban center of Torrevieja."

The councilor pointed out that the new space will allow for the reorganization and optimization of municipal police resources, decongesting the current central facilities of the Policía Local and freeing up space to enable new areas and services in the main facilities.

Functional spaces

The new police station will feature various functional spaces designed for both internal officer work and direct citizen service. Planned improvements include changing rooms, showers, offices, workrooms, and a dedicated citizen service area.

In addition, the City Council is considering allocating some areas of the building to services such as Administrative Police and citizen services, among other departments linked to the daily management of security and urban traffic.

The approved lease agreement stipulates an initial term of four years, with the possibility of annual extensions up to a maximum of six years. The base budget for the initial four years is €191,664, including VAT. Alarcón declined to specify when the City Council intends to open the station. However, from a municipal management perspective, it is highly likely that the local government will want to promote it as an improvement in local security shortly before the end of its current term in May 2027.

Breakdown

Year 2026 (3 months): 11,979 euros
Year 2027: 47,916 euros
Year 2028: 47,916 euros
Year 2029: 47,916 euros
Year 2030 (9 months): 35,937 euros

Disused heritage and rentals

Thus, the City Council continues to meet its need for new spaces for municipal offices by renting them out. This practice has been questioned by the opposition PSOE party, both because of the municipal expenditure and because, in the same area where this particular space is being rented, for example, there are three other municipal properties that could house the same offices.

This is the case of the former Sumofi store building on Calle Clemente Gosálvez, acquired by the City Council itself for more than 600,000 euros; the former Torrevieja Town Hall building, closed since 2014 without any rehabilitation work being carried out; or the former pensioners' home, a single-story building located on the street parallel to the one chosen now, Azorín, which was incorporated into the municipal heritage in 2011 without any action being taken to give it a municipal function.

In the last year, the City Council has finalized, in addition to this rental, another for premises at the confluence of Calle Caballero de Rodas and Calle Clemente Gosálvez to accommodate staff from two municipal departments that do not fit in the main council building, another premises as the headquarters of the municipal housing office and to manage future allocations of protected housing, and a new headquarters for the Social Services area in the Acequión area.

The total cost of all the rentals far exceeds €350,000 annually. The most striking is that of the municipal archives, completely inaccessible to the public, which costs almost €10,000 per month. This is followed by other municipal offices such as the Census and Statistics Office and the Sea and Salt Museum, whose lease dates back to 1994.