Alex Trelinski
TORREVIEJA council has attacked the Spanish government for not lessening the blow of big rubbish tax rises from January, as the city faces an average doubling of bills.
As with every municipality in Spain, an EU edict means that councils have to get residents to pay for the full cost of refuse services.
Torrevieja currently absorbs 62% of collection costs which will now be passed on to citizens in the New Year.
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The average increase will see fees double from the current €42 per household.
The minimum rise will be 88% in Torrevieja’s urban area but that will leap by 200% in Los Altos to €131.
Expat areas like La Siesta will be charged €124 and La Mata will have a €111 levy.
The city’s economy and finance councillor, Domingo Paredes, said that though it was an EU decision, Spain’s government had ignored the economic situation of individual municipalities.
He called for subsidies to reduce burdens on ‘middle-class families’.
“At a time when the government is making money from lower inflation and a VAT rise on food, we don’t understand why some of it is not used to cushion this tax rise,” said Paredes of the conservative Partido Popular.
Torrevieja council will still maintain payment exemptions for low wage earners as well as pensioners and the long-term unemployed.
Paredes added the authority is looking at other ways of minimising the effects of the rise ‘to the most vulnerable groups in our city’.
