The Generalitat will continue public transport discounts until the end of June. Salomé Pradas, Minister of Environment, Water, Infrastructure and Land, announced yesterday, after the Consell’s general assembly meeting, that the Valencian Administration has issued a decree to extend this aid, which provides free subscriptions to those under 31 years of age. 50% discount on all tickets for older and other travelers. According to official accounts, the amount of the measure is 18.4 million euros.
Pradas explained that with this measure the Generalitat confirmed its “commitment to sustainable public transport” and that the central government, which later fell out of favor due to the lack of information provided, took the lead in maintaining these reductions in the face of a “lack of uncertainty”. Pedro Sánchez announces his measure during the discussions for his appointment.
lack of information
“We are waiting to see how it will happen, and seeing that after a month we still do not know in what form or when it will happen, we have decided to extend it on the same terms,” the popular leader said. As clearly stated, once this extension is approved, those who already have a youth voucher must renew it at Metrovalencia and TRAM automatic ticket vending machines in Alicante and at TRAM Customer Service in Castellón. Since the 50% discount on multi-trip tickets will be applied directly, users can use Castellón TRAM, Metrobús, Metrovalencia, Alicante TRAM and urban and intercity buses.
The estimated cost to the Generalitat of implementing these two reduction measures to promote public transport over the next six months is $18.4 million.
This is a successful investment according to the data provided by the consultant, who emphasizes that the balance of the initiative in the previous months was an important factor in deciding to extend the initiative for another six months. According to Pradas, 18 million trips were made on the Generalitat’s public transport between July and December, which, according to the popular leader, allowed Valencian families to save 15 million euros.
In his speech, Pradas explained that “while the uncertainties regarding the measures to be taken by the state and their possible financing are resolved”, Consell also took steps “in order not to jeopardize the continuity of the discounts”.
Interestingly, PP and Vox recently annulled two PSPV amendments in the Cortes, demanding the implementation of this extension, which has now been approved by the Consell.
Change in urban planning law to speed up projects and attract more investment
The Consell General Assembly yesterday decided to amend the Regional Planning, Urban Planning and Landscape Act (Lotup) to eliminate the mandatory prior consultation process for strategic regional plans (PTE). It will be Consell who will decide whether such investments planned to be made on urban land, which are already foreseen in the general plans (therefore there is no need for reclassification), will be announced to the public in advance, and whether they will be explained very simply. For example, like the Sagunt gigafactory. And they differ from PIES (sustainable strategic investment projects), which are projected on land that cannot be developed, so they need more complex processes.
The amendment to Lotup (approved under Minister Isabel Bonig and amended by Botànic) was accepted because, as Regional Minister Salomé Pradas explained, “many industrial activities that could be made official were not carried out”. Although they don’t make it clear which ones.
The aim of this change is to “accelerate and simplify the processing of strategic territory plans (PTE)” to ensure greater speed and prevent overexposure of projects.
According to Pradas, the Valencian Community is “emerging as one of the most attractive regions for both national and international investment” and for these investments to take place they have decided to eliminate prior public consultation only for PTEs. It will be Consell who will “determine, based on motivation and the situation, whether a draft strategic regional plan should be submitted to public consultation in advance on established terms”; this would allow “savings between the two countries” in this sense. Possible speculations are prevented when purchasing land with a maturity of one and three months, and the confidentiality of these investments is guaranteed.
“We want the Valencian Community to become attractive again for investments, and we want to facilitate the procedures for these investments to come,” Pradas added. For this reason, the consultant argued that they would roll out the “red carpet for investments that will create employment in a sustainable manner.”