The spokesperson for the Grupo Municipal Socialista in the Ayuntamiento de Torrevieja, Bárbara Soler, has heavily criticised the local government’s decision to rent a new commercial property to establish a new Policía Local checkpoint. In a video published on social media, Soler branded the measure a meaningless gesture that will fail to deliver any real increase in citizen security or police presence on the streets.
According to Soler, the approved contract binds the municipal coffers until the year 2032, incurring an annual cost of close to 50,000 euro solely for rent. This cost does not include the additional funds needed to renovate and adapt the former commercial unit, which spans approximately 700 square metres, into suitable police facilities.
While the official budget for the upcoming refurbishment has not yet been finalised, the opposition spokesperson pointed to the rehabilitation of another rented ground-floor premises in the municipality as a cautionary example. That project exceeded 220,000 euro in costs and the site remains closed to this day, despite the town hall paying the monthly rent for the last year and a half.
“We are facing a new propaganda operation by the Partido Popular,” Soler stated. “A new police checkpoint is being announced as if it were an improvement to safety, when the reality is that not a single extra officer is being added to the workforce. There will be no more police on the streets; they are simply moving services from one place to another.”
The PSOE highlighted that the municipal government itself admits the primary objective of this project is to relieve congestion at the current central facilities. Because of this, the socialists argue that the measure should have been planned using criteria of efficiency and proximity to local residents.
The opposition has denounced the fact that the town hall is turning to private rentals while leaving several municipal-owned buildings and premises underutilised or entirely empty, despite at least three such public properties being located very close to the selected site.
The location of the new facilities has also been deemed entirely inappropriate by the Grupo Municipal Socialista if the goal was to decentralise services. Situated barely two kilometres from the current central police station, the new checkpoint continues to concentrate resources within the urban centre. The PSOE maintains that a genuine commitment to decentralisation would mean placing these services in outlying areas that are far from the main centre, such as the district of La Mata or the large urbanisations including Torreblanca, Los Balcones, San Luis, and the southern developments, where thousands of residents are demanding closer access to public services.
It is also worth noting that the local police previously had a central office, located in the vecinity of what is now Paseo del Mar dining centre, and an office exists in the La Siesta area, used mostly as an administration base, not forgetting that another local office was closed down near the CV-905, and of course noting that a lot of the increses in crime in Torrevieja is happening away from the centre, and so a central office would move police resources away from the hot spots. Moreover, there is a small police station near the Aquas Nuevas area, which faced some controversy at the time due to debts on the building, a debt that was paid off my the former Los Verdes mayor out of his own pocket.
