The lights are going out in Bigastro

Lack of money in the municipal coffers is increasingly causing problems for the town council in Bigastro.

In 2006 and 2007, during the construction boom the town’s budget was almost 8 million Euros per year. Now the working capital is just over four million.

As a result, the mayor confirms that 90 of the council workers have only been paid 60 percent of their December wages and that the Christmas bonuses have been paid to just a third of the workforce. The rest, including the councillors and civil servants will have to wait up to six months to get theirs.

It gets worse though because, as I reported before, the electricity has been cut at several municipal centres including La Paz infant school, the Sports Centre and the new location for the local police in the old José de Calasanz. buildings.

The money owed to Iberdrola is the problem; the town had a bill for 70,000 Euros for street lighting which had to be paid otherwise we would all be stumbling about in the dark. So the street lights stay on but the infant school has to rely upon a generator to stay open much to the disgust of the parents.

The mayor has tried to reason with Iberdrola but to no effect, they are adamant that the debt must be cleared before the electricity is restored to the infant school. The Mayor has also tried to move to another company, Endesa but legislation prevents the town from doing this until Iberdrola have been paid.

The mayor says that other municipalities, who have similar debts to Iberdrola, have not suffered cuts and therefore, once the town has the all clear, it will try and change its contract to Endesa.

You can understand Iberdrola's position but surely cutting electricity to an infant school is not the act of a socially responsible company they claim to be.