Redován provisionally awards the new waste collection and street cleaning contract to STV Gestión

  • The contract extends waste collection to seven days a week, modernises the machinery and introduces a fifth container

The Plenary of the Redován Town Council, meeting in Extraordinary Session, has given the green light to the contracting of the waste collection and street cleaning service, which has been provisionally awarded to the company STV Gestión. The tendering process launched by the Consistory of Redovan comes to an end with the award, for an amount of around 430,000 euros per year, which aims to significantly improve street cleaning and waste collection through the numerous improvements set out in the specifications. The contractor will start work in the municipality from next week. “From now on, we begin a new stage in which Redován will have an updated service adapted to a town of its size and population,” said the mayoress, Nely Ruiz.

The main new feature of this contract is “the extension of the collection of solid urban waste to seven days a week, instead of the six that we have had until now”, said the councillor for Municipal Services, Ramón López. The councillor indicated that one of the company’s commitments is to increase the number of containers throughout the municipality, “both for residual waste and for recycling paper and cardboard, packaging, plastics and glass”, together with the implementation of a fifth container, brown in colour, for the collection of organic waste”.

This increase in the number of containers will allow for more effective waste collection, and at the same time, encourage the habit of recycling among the population, which will make Redován a greener municipality. The specifications also included an increase in the number of hours of work and “the modernisation and improvement of machinery for the performance of this service, which will be totally respectful of the environment”, added López. Other conditions requested of the new contractor include the extension of the collection of household waste to two days a week; fixed containers for the removal of pruning and other waste; the installation of doggy bag dispensers and extraordinary buckets.

For his part, the councillor for the Treasury, Adrián Ballester, stressed that “this is one of the most important contracts of this council, which was drawn up with the contributions and consensus of all the political groups and which will also be audited by external agents throughout the period of execution”. Ballester also stressed the need for renewal that existed since the service, “has remained unchanged or updated since 2003, so now what we seek is to offer citizens a much better waste collection and street cleaning and according to the time in which we are”.

The mayoress of Redován has indicated that, with the implementation of the new conditions, “it will allow a better functioning of the service and a closer relationship with the citizens”, adding that “we are thus fulfilling one of the main commitments made by this government team at the beginning of the legislature, with the primary objective of improving the quality of life and well-being of the citizens”.

Rainwater drainage works completed on Calle Menéndez Pelayo to prevent landslides

The works have been carried out thanks to a subsidy from the Provincial Council of Alicante, with a budget of almost 50.000 euros

The Mayor of Redován, Nely Ruiz, and the Councillor for the Environment and Municipal Services, Ramón López, presented this morning the completed work on the rainwater drainage system in Calle Menéndez Pelayo. The purpose of these works is to “direct the rainwater that runs with great force down the steep slope of the Redován mountain towards the nearby ravines”, which causes the dragging of the water into the town centre “and damages the houses on this street, as happened during the DANA or in other episodes of heavy rain”, explained López.

In this way, the councillor said that “after the clearing of the area, the path has been fenced off, a place that is very much used by the residents, as well as having a canalisation wall built and the road surface conditioned, as it was very badly damaged during the heavy rains in September last year”. Likewise, these actions “will prevent the acts of vandalism that, unfortunately, the houses in this area had been suffering for a long time”, added the mayor.

The work has been financed with 49.800 euros, obtained through a grant from the Provincial Council of Alicante. The mayor, Nely Ruiz, has assured that the collaboration of the provincial administration has been indispensable, since it solves “a situation that seriously affected the residents of this area of Redován, and that finally they are going to have the security in their homes in case there are new periods of strong rains”. The first councillor also indicated that “as a Town Hall and as a government team, it is our main objective to continue working to solve, as far as we can, the problems that most affect our neighbours”.

Redován will implement the fifth container and improve waste collection with more recycling containers

  • The service will be provided seven days a week, instead of the current six, and will also have advanced and more modern machinery
  • The next plenary session will launch the call for tenders for the service, and once the specifications have been published, companies will be able to submit tenders

The government team in the Redován Town Hall will take to the next plenary session the start of the tender for the waste collection and street cleaning service with the approval of the specifications that will govern the contract. Once the plenary session is over, the documentation will be sent to the Public Procurement Portal so that companies can apply for the tender. This was announced at a press conference by the town’s mayor, Nely Ruiz, and the councillor for finance, Adrián Ballester, accompanied by the councillor for municipal services, Ramón López, who stressed that the service was being updated to meet the needs of the population and the measures needed to protect the environment, with the introduction of the fifth container for organic waste and the increase in the number of containers for recycling containers, plastics, paper, cardboard and glass.

The head of the municipal Treasury Department explained that a specialised firm has been responsible for preparing the specifications and the operating project to be fulfilled by the company that is awarded the contract, which is one of the most important contracts for the Redondo City Council and which will significantly improve the service currently provided. Ballester added that the process will be transparent, since the Contracting Committee will include both municipal technicians who are familiar with the local situation and technicians from the Alicante Provincial Council, who are specialists in this type of contract. Once awarded, the contract will be audited by an external agent during its execution.

Redován Town Council is putting the contract out to public tender for a sum of 432.924,74 euros (without VAT) per year, and wants to incorporate the latest technology and most environmentally friendly methods into this service. Therefore, the collection of the organic fraction separated from the rest of the waste will be included through the implementation of the brown container in the streets of the municipality. “We will be one of the first municipalities in the Vega Baja to incorporate this legal and environmental requirement into a contract”, explained the mayor, Nely Ruiz, who added that “our aim is to have the best technological systems to provide an effective and rapid response to all needs”. In addition, the first mayor has assured that once the service has been set up, the rubbish will be collected from Monday to Sunday, “and not six days like now”.

Another of the points to be highlighted is containment. “On the one hand we are looking to increase recycling and transform Redován into a green municipality, which is why we want to increase the number of containers both for rest and organic waste and for lightweight packaging and paper and cardboard”, said Ruiz, who added that “we want the waste to be collected two days a week, instead of one day”. In this sense, it will also be included as a requirement that Redován has two fixed containers for the removal of pruning and other waste, although the tender price does not include the treatment and disposal of waste assumed by the City Council.

The mayor has assured that “in addition to having the most advanced and modern machinery, the company must have a facility in Redován to make the cleaning of the municipality and the collection of waste more effective and have a direct contact with the citizens”. There will also be GPS control of all vehicles used for waste collection.

The council of the Treasury, Adrian Ballester, explained that the industrial benefit of this tender is quantified at 23.192,40 euros, “since the rest of the costs are the general costs of any company (payment of payroll, purchase of trucks, etc.). Ballester has assured that with this industrial benefit, 5% of the contract, “we do not assume any risk and all the responsibility for managing possible worker absences, accidents or vehicle breakages is transferred to the company”. In this sense, specialized companies “can also buy vehicles cheaper than the City Council, as they buy more”. The also first deputy mayor said that “our goal is to improve as much as we can a service, which is provided in the same conditions since 2003, so we will provide more hours of service, installation of dog bag dispensers, extra buckets or increase the number of containers.

Group participation

Redován’s government team has worked on the new urban waste collection and street cleaning contract with opposition groups. In this sense, there was a Board of Spokespersons in which the entire tender was explained. Afterwards, individualised meetings were called with each group where the opinions and suggestions of the different political groups were collected. These improvements have led to changes in the specifications so that they were consensual. The mayor, Nely Ruiz, has assured in this respect that “we are before one of the most important contracts of this legislature, for that reason we have needed the consensus of all to take out this tender, since the only thing that matters to us is the well-being of our neighbours, to improve their quality of life and to do it with total transparency”.

Redován will update the rubbish tax to improve service and alleviate the current budget deficit

  • The City Council will finance with 20% the total cost of maintaining a basic service such as urban waste collection and street cleaning

The government team of Redován City Council will take to the next plenary session, scheduled for next week, the update of the rubbish rate to adjust it to the reality and the needs of the service in the municipality. At the moment, the waste collection service is causing the Redován Town Council to have a significant budget deficit, although the local government plans to continue financing up to 20% of the total cost of this basic service to prevent the increase in the rate from causing greater problems for the domestic economy of Redován residents. For this reason, the increase in the fee will be 22.55 euros per year in the bill, from 76.45 euros to 99 euros the total amount to be paid in each year.

The mayor of Finance, Adrian Ballester, explained that “this is an important measure, because we want to adjust the current budgetary parameters, as the City Council assumes 20% of the total cost of the service. In this sense, the objective is to alleviate, at least in part, the deficit that the municipal coffers register “and that the neighbours do not have loss of economic capacity, since the increase will mean only 1.87 euros per month per household. Also, Ballester has assured that the City Council makes a great effort since it pays part of the service “and we do not consider to stop doing it, to help the neighbours in a difficult time, which also means the pandemic at this time and without having yet overcome the effects of the economic crisis that devastated our region and our people for more than a decade.

The change in the rate of solid waste collection has also been approached in a complex manner, and will have a different application in the commercial and business sphere than in the domestic sphere. “The generation of waste in the case of industries is very different to what families produce, so we believe it is essential and fair to adjust the parameters in this regard,” said the councillor of Finance.

The also spokesman of the municipal government has informed that one of the objectives of the Town Hall is to fulfill as it should and with all the guarantees with the basic services in the municipality. And he defended that the Council is making an “enormous effort” to adjust all the economic parameters and that the services continue, as happened with the water. In this case, Ballester indicated that the government team wants the waste collection service to improve as well and that the residents will see how, little by little, it changes and is modernised, adding that “the modification of rates is thus in line with what other municipalities in the Vega Baja region have”.

Redován requests to the Autonomic Ministry to create bike lanes that link the town with Orihuela and Callosa

  • The sections go from the Puente Alto to the access to Redován and from El Rincón to the entrance to the neighboring municipality of Callosa

The Councilor for Infrastructure of the Redován City Council, Ramón López, has received a visit from Enrique del Río, head of the territorial service of the Department of Public Works in the province of Alicante, together with the road conservation technician Rosana Climent and Pedro Mora , Technical Medium of Public Works of the Generalitat. The regional authorities wanted to know how the bike lane works at the entrance to Redován through the Oriolana district of La Campaneta are progressing. The mayor has taken the opportunity to request the execution of new works to improve road safety in access to the town, specifically from the Puente Alto area where the municipal government also wants to execute a section of bike lane of about one kilometer.

Ramón López explained that “the Generalitat Public Works managers have been asked to study for the implementation of a bike lane or, if this is not possible, the installation of steel, from the Puente Alto area, on the road that connects Orihuela with Redován, towards the urban area of ​​the municipality ”. The councilor has specified that an equal action is requested “from the departure from the El Rincón neighborhood to the neighboring town of Callosa.” This last section with an approximate length of 200 meters. In López’s opinion, both “actions would be very beneficial and would help to improve the displacement of Redovanenses in a more sustainable and environmentally friendly way. At the same time, it has stressed that “access to Redován would be made safer for bicycle users.”

The meeting also had the objective of reviewing the evolution of the works to extend the cycle lane route along the CV-919 La Campaneta-Redován, which began last September to the town’s urban center. The works are progressing well and are expected to be completed in mid-October, allowing bicycles to circulate in two directions on the four-meter wide lane.

Work has begun on the bicycle lane next to the CV-919 to extend its route to the town centre of Redován

  • It is 450 metres long and four metres wide and will allow bicycles to travel in both directions to the town

The Department of Infrastructure of Redován City Council, which is headed by Ramón López, has reported on the work that the Regional Ministry of Territorial Policy, Public Works and Mobility is carrying out in the municipality to extend the CR-919 La Campaneta-Redován cycle path, with the town centre.

Until now, this area of circulation for cyclists ended at the beginning of the Avenida de la Constitución, surrounding the roundabout. Now, “and with the completion of the last 450 metres, it will allow uninterrupted traffic for the users of this means of transport”, explained the councillor, “which will allow double traffic in the three metres wide lane”. It will be four metres wide to allow two-way traffic for bicycles.

The work, which will cost approximately 170,000 euros, has been paid for by the Road Conservation Area of the Regional Ministry and is expected to be completed by mid-October. As explained by López, the development of this action also includes the installation of a separation kerb of approximately one metre, to protect road users and prevent vehicles travelling on the road from invading the cycle lane.

“We are grateful to the Regional Ministry of Public Works for the work that is being done to unify this section of cycling track with the urban centre of Redován”, said the mayor, “and which helps us as a municipality to evolve towards a cleaner environment, by committing to a sustainable means of transport such as the bicycle”, he added.