Joaquin Albaldejo, delegate for Alicante sworn in

JOAQUÍN ALBALDEJO, Torrevieja’s Deputy Mayor and Chief Financial Officer has taken up his post in Alicante’s provincial government.

A lawyer by trade, Joaquin Albaldejo will be doing his utmost to ensure that Torrevieja receives everything due to Alicante’s third largest city, including grants and incentives. He speaks very good English and along with Mayor Eduardo Dolon, is looking towards building up stronger ties with the international community and introducing new initiatives, with one of the first projects on his agenda, the proposed International Social Centre.

Albaldejo has also spoken about his feelings towards Premier Zapatero and the situation in which Torrevieja’s Partido Popular feel they have often been disrespected by the PSOE Coalition government.

He points out that Torrevieja is the only city in Spain with more than 100,000 on the padron without a National Police Station, that Europe’s largest Distillation plant is still unfinished after seven years and awaiting an electrical sub-station and piping to the Mediterranean.

Albaldejo speaks of Torrevieja’s plans to introduce a new Citizen’s Smart Card, which will hold information about an individual’s padron (municipal register) status and will act as a quick way to use the free local bus service, library and other social services.

As Albaldejo says, the more citizens that register on the padron the more finances are provided by the government for such important aspects as hospitals, health clinics, police, infrastructure, education, culture, social services, civil servants plus the less thought of items such as buses, taxis, lottery and tobacco shops and other amenities.

Along with Joaquin Albaldejo, former mayor of Orihuela Monica Lorente also has a seat on the council.

Torrevieja’s statistics office has also reported an abnormal rise of those from Orihuela Costa switching their padron status to Torrevieja within days after the May 22 election results.

By Keith Nicol