Local councillors on Spain’s Costa Almeria donate half salaries to families hardest hit by coronavirus crisis

THE Huercal-Overa Council members are donating half their salaries to help local families hardest hit by the coronavirus crisis.
Mayor Francisca Fernandez announced 50 per cent of the wages of both the full-time and part-time councillors would go to the Municipal Social Emergency Programme.
The mayor said the local authority members wanted to help “meet the needs which are coming up every day in our municipality because of the health crisis which is creating situations of need in many homes.”
Fernandez stressed that the council is implementing various measures under the programme and that more measures “to reactivate the local economy,” with particular focus on businesses and the self-employed, would follow with the approval of the municipal budget for the current financial year.
She described the councillors’ pay donation as a “necessary, supportive and fair measure to help, albeit in a small way, those social groups which are the most affected by this difficult situation in which we currently find ourselves.”
The mayor also repeated her administration’s gratitude to and recognition of the “daily effort, work and dedication of so many people in our municipality: health workers, Local Police, Guardia Civil, municipal workers, the Municipal Public Company, Civil Protection, volunteers, people caring for the elderly, food shop workers, farmers, drivers and all the worker who continue to attending to everyone’s needs.
She also had words of praise for local residents, “whose responsible and supportive behaviour is fighting to end this pandemic.”