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Gloria Martín regretted that the municipal government team has allowed the only public transport line to die for the inhabitants of these localities without first starting an alternative.

He recalled that his political training has been asking for years that the City Council implement other options to improve mobility, such as the rural taxi service on demand, and demanded the reactivation of the Transport Board, which has not met since March The councilor for Izquierda Unida-Verdes, Gloria Martín, has denounced that the municipal government team has not awarded any public transport service concession contract for the bus line that connected Ramonete and Puntas de Calnegre with the urban area of ??Lorca. The mayor of IU-Verdes has been very critical of this decision that supposes suppressing "the only means of public transport" that the inhabitants of these towns had.

Martín wondered how that marries with the PSOE's electoral promise of a "radical transformation" of the public bus service to "improve the connection between the city center and the councils." An issue with which the Socialists were especially insistent when they were in opposition. Martín explained that, by virtue of Law 10/2015, the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia transferred to the town councils the competence over the management of public transport lines that run entirely through their municipal terms.

Which, in the case of Ciudad del Sol, affects the lines MUR-010 Fuensanta-La Parroquia-Lorca and MUR-070 Lorca-Puntas de Calnegre. For this reason, in the plenary session last December and through a motion of the Mayor's Office, PSOE and C's, with the support of VOX, approved the indirect management model for the operation and management of this service.

This despite the fact that the municipal company Limusa, which expanded its corporate purpose precisely to take over the provision of the collective passenger transport service, can manage it directly. Martín already denounced at that time that the Mayor's motion was not accompanied by a rigorous economic study on the viability of the service, nor did it establish the legal and administrative regime of future concessions, and that it did not contemplate "a plan B" in the event that the tenders will be left deserted, something more than likely considering that these lines are in deficit.

"As we foresaw that day, it was a question of a kick to the ball, of complying with the formalities to wash their hands later", because, in the case of the Lorca-Ramonete-Puntas de Calnegre line, "they have not even tried to take the contract to tender ".

"They have simply let her die as we already warned would happen," he censured. The one that connects the urban area with La Fuensanta, Fontanares and Lorca has survived, "basically due to the interest shown by the company that had been providing the service", and which was awarded to it on July 31 by the Local Government Board. Regarding the Ramonete and Puntas de Calnegre line, Martín said that he is aware that it was little used, among other things because it only worked on Thursdays, but that "should not serve as an excuse" for parties "theoretically" concerned about depopulation , inequalities and the lack of services suffered by the inhabitants of rural areas, "liquidate the few opportunities they have." "We feel increasingly distant from the liberal drift of the Lorca PSOE that does not take us into account, that puts economic criteria before social equality and the rights of the most disadvantaged population and the necessary territorial cohesion, and that is not even capable to implement alternatives to the suppression of public services ". In that sense, Martín recalled that Izquierda Unida-Verdes has for years been requesting that the City Council implement other options to cover the mobility needs of citizens who live far from the health and administrative center of Lorca, such as the rural taxi service on demand.

In this regard, he asked the Councilor for Transport, Irene Jódar, to reactivate the Transport Board, which has not met since March. "We know that the Covid-19 crisis has disrupted the plans of the local administration, but that cannot serve as a permanent alibi, because there are other problems that must also be answered," concluded Martín.

Source: IU-verdes Lorca