The City Council has taken firm steps in the execution of the budget, with 55 million euros already executed or in progress as of May.

The Ayuntamiento de San Fernando has executed or is in the process of executing 55 million from the expenditure budget up to May, representing 67% of the initial budget and 48% of the total budget.

At the end of the first quarter of this year, the Ayuntamiento has 45 million euros in the Treasury, of which 23 million are surplus funds. As announced by the local government, 17 of those 23 million will be used to pay off the Ayuntamiento's financial debt, which will be completely cancelled, reducing it to zero. This will allow for savings of 1.5 million euros in debt-related payments, while strengthening the Ayuntamiento's economic capacity to address new projects, thus fulfilling its commitments to the public, as explained by the Councillor for Economic Development, Conrado Rodríguez.

This financial strategy will allow for the launching of tenders for projects that will have a major impact on the city's transformation. These projects include football and athletics stadiums, the Gallineras nautical building, the summer swimming pool, the Planetario, Casa Lazaga, and the second phase of avenida Pery Junquera.

The Councillor for Economic Development shared this information during May's ordinary Pleno, presenting the quarterly evolution of the 2024 budgets. Rodríguez highlighted the local government's ability to eliminate a 48 million euro debt inherited from the PP and PA governments over nine years. He added that eliminating the debt will save 1.5 million euros annually in repayments and bank interest payments, which will be reinvested into improving public services and municipal action, as well as helping to offset price increases due to the rise in the CPI.

The councillor stressed that eliminating the debt and cleaning up municipal accounts were achieved without stopping investment in the city. In 2023, a record investment of 8.7 million euros was reached, and so far in 2024, 7.34 million euros have already been executed or are in the process of execution, which will allow investment figures to be surpassed once again this year.

Rodríguez mentioned that, across the entire budget, 55 million euros have been executed or are currently in execution. He highlighted investment in public services such as cleaning, urban maintenance, parks and gardens, as well as grants and subsidies in the social field to guarantee equal opportunities in the city.

Regarding the expenditure area executed or under execution, the councillor noted that practically all of the 2.1 million budgeted for urban maintenance is committed, and that more than anticipated in the initial budget has been executed in building maintenance and sustainable development. This has led to an increase in the 2024 budget allocations for these areas, as well as for urban maintenance, parks and gardens, street cleaning, and waste collection.

In school maintenance, only 125,000 euros remain available out of the initial 2.1 million budget, leading to another increase in this allocation in the 2024 budget.

Finally, the councillor highlighted a budget allocation of 3.6 million euros to make the commissioning of the Ayuda a Domicilio service to HEMSA a reality, the new maintenance contract for sports facilities and activities worth nearly three million euros, and the «very notable increase» in the new school cleaning contract, which will soon go out to tender.