Evacuations highlight state of Almeria districts

A RECENT incident which saw hundreds of people temporarily evacuated from their homes in El Patio in Almeria City’s Pescaderia district has served to highlight the abandoned state of the entire area.

PSOE socialist party councillor at City Hall Manuel Vallejo has complained of an “unbearable lack of cleaning and maintenance which the Partido Popular is subjecting Pescaderia to, especially in the Camino Viejo area where rubbish of all types is piling up and posing a health risk.”

PSOE councillors held a meeting with a number of neighbours’ association representatives, who took them on a tour to see the worst areas, a letter has been sent to the mayor demanding something be done urgently.

Local residents say they cannot believe that the council has spent almost one million euros on cleaning up the nearby access areas to the city while ignoring the inside of the district. Roads are in such a bad state that, they say, in some areas potholes are so big they are accumulating piles of rubbish inside.

Not only that, Vallejo said, but this clear-up job involved demolition of warehouses which caused the earth to move and cracks have appeared in local homes. “The inhabitants are worried because this could be dangerous and when it rains their walls leak,” the councillor said.

Regarding El Patio itself, Vallejo has asked the council to explain what it is going to do about the state of the complex to guarantee safety as the residents are clearly in no position to cover the costs of rehabilitation of the building.