Having seemingly not realised that developing the port area in Torrevieja would cause disruption to the fair ground, the Mayor of Torrevieja, Eduardo Dolón, eventually promised to move the facilities to a new location in the market area of Parque Antonio Soria, the fair ground workers are now complaining because nothing has been done to help them, even though the summer season, the most lucrative, is about to begin.
The stall holders already lost revenue during the Easter period, with many of them not working for months.
Dolón made the commitment to the carnies, around 80 fairground attractions that employ 150 workers in high season, to have a new location in the market and fairgrounds by mid-May. However, the municipality, although it is working to carry out the new location, has not been able to fulfil its initial commitment.
The weather has been blamed in part for the delay, but other than that, the stall holders have had no further progress reports, and José Mateo, a member of the board of directors of the Asociación de Feriantes, has publicly asked the acting government team for more information on the process and speed.
In the same sense, they have indicated that the possibility of working with their attractions in other municipalities is now much more limited than before due to local and regional ordinances giving preference to companies with more seniority in each municipality. Therefore, a good part of the families that maintained a fair business in the port area are now without activity. And it’s been like this for six months.
The Council needs an investment of more than 600,000 euro -according to the latest modification of the project approved by the governing board last Friday- to adapt the 13,000-square-metre facility. Mateo explains that one of the biggest difficulties is in the provision of energy. Fairground attractions need enormous power and current facilities can only cover around 60% of the demand.
If the relocation is carried out without the increase in that flow, it could resort to generator sets. The same sources also want the Council to carry out an information campaign in the media about the relocation of the fairground when it is clear that the new venue will be ready for its activity in the market area. Something to which the municipality has committed, in addition to having a shuttle bus from the centre.
Now the elections are over and promises no longer need to be made, they do need to be delivered on, and although the fair workers want a commitment to resume work as soon as possible, they also want to return to their home ground once the port area redevelopment is complete, although there have been calls for that to never happen, as the relocation, if it happens, is something certain associates in the town hall have been trying to achieve for many years.
