Montserrat asks the regional government to join València’s taxi area

Montserrat’s town council held its ordinary October plenary session on Thursday 29 October, with the whole council present except one councillor who followed the session by video link after an injury. The mayor opened the meeting with a tribute on the second anniversary of the DANA (the flash floods of October 2024) and condolences for the train accident in Urda (Toledo), and the opposition groups echoed his words.

The proposal with the greatest day-to-day impact was item 3 (file 12405/2026): asking the regional ministry (Conselleria) to include Montserrat in the Àrea de Prestació Conjunta de València, the body that coordinates the taxi service of the city of València and its surroundings. The municipality holds three licences and made the same request in 2014, when it had only one; the Conselleria turned it down then. Now, the mayor explained, it is the taxi drivers themselves who have asked for another attempt. The item was carried.

The council unanimously extended and regularised for five years the free cession of part of the building at carrer d’Alfredo García, 32, linked to the CEIP Evaristo Calatayud state school, to the Depén de Tu association, which works with families with dependent people (file 12441/2026). The agreement had expired and the council had hoped the Conselleria would authorise the centre as an official day centre; as that has not yet been achieved, it regularises the situation for a further five years.

Item 4 (file 12780/2024) formally closed the emergency works to repair DANA damage to the infrastructure and sports courts of the Poliesportiu Municipal (the municipal sports centre), with a final certificate of zero euros. PP, VOX, A.I.G.U.A. and PSOE voted in favour and Compromís against.

The council also approved credit modification 34/2026 (file 12838/2026), which moves funds from the waste collection budget to education in order to contract the inspection and certification of the school roof, after the problems caused by last winter’s storms. PP, VOX, A.I.G.U.A. and PSOE voted in favour and Compromís abstained.

In the oversight section, the council reported the mayoral resolutions of September and the agreements of the Local Government Board of 24 September, recognised the work of a local police officer who arrested a man for breaking into a house on 27 August in the Sant Joaquim residential estate — he had been in service for three days — and reviewed police activity over the last two months: 23 humanitarian services, 35 interventions for neighbourhood disturbances and 32 traffic complaints, among others.

The session then added an urgent seventh item, approved unanimously: opening proceedings to declare null the selection panel for the post of nursery school head, after objections were lodged at the third test. The file will go to the Consell Jurídic Consultiu (the regional legal advisory body), which must decide whether a new panel is appointed and the process resumes where it stopped, or whether it has to start again from scratch.

The local police also reported on the electric scooter enforcement campaign running from 26 October to 4 November, with the new state rules now in force — minimum age 15 and a compulsory approved helmet under the traffic regulations, plus compulsory insurance for certified and registered scooters: 22 scooters have been impounded so far.

On works and services, the council announced that asphalt resurfacing of the roundabout at the entrance to the sports centre, which links the CV-407 with the avenues of Jaume I, Carles Salvador and Josep Renau, was completed on Thursday 29; signage and road markings are still pending. On 6 October the draft design was submitted for the €6 million grant from the European Union Solidarity Fund for drinking water infrastructure, with the works due to run until the end of 2027. Pruning of the palm trees in the town centre starts on Monday, and the water pipeline works in Montroi continue, which the council expects to finish before Christmas.

In the questions section, Compromís congratulated the government on the road repairs, asked for attention to the gardens and empty plots on the industrial estates and asked about the solar farm projects, saying it had heard nothing; the mayor replied that the planning amendment is out to contract. The Compromís spokesperson also questioned who sets the pace of the council’s publications, and the mayor insisted the planning is his and that seven videos are scheduled to explain the works and the grants.

Vox called for a second no-entry sign at plaça Cervantes and carrer de Vicent Andrés Estellés because the existing one is hard to see, demanded video-surveillance warning signs across the municipality and warned that fines for leaving bags beside the bins run up against a capacity problem: in summer the population reaches 30,000 and the bins are the same as in winter. The mayor agreed to look at the sign and the signage, insisted the public safety cameras are already signposted and the fines are aimed at keeping the town clean, and undertook to provide a draft of the new waste contract, with a fee that varies with the amount of waste generated.

The tensest moment came when Vox brought to the chamber an incident that allegedly took place on 8 October at the secondary school, in which a teacher is said to have harangued several pupils aged 13 and 14. The group said a complaint signed by more than a dozen families has been filed with the school and the Conselleria, and asked whether the education department knew about the events and whether the council will offer support to the families. The education councillor replied that she had not been aware — the school council had met the day before and did not discuss the matter —, that internal conflicts at a secondary school are not a municipal responsibility and that she condemns any violence. The PSOE reproached Vox for making the accusation without evidence and for identifying the person concerned in a public session, a criticism Compromís shared; the person named was not present and could not reply. Vox maintained that the complaint exists and that the process is under way.

The PSOE also asked about the Mistela park, the areas where the forest brigades have worked and the state of the paths in El Tosal; the government replied that it is waiting for the green spaces project in order to renew the parks and that the path will be inspected. The socialists closed by welcoming the news on water: the Entitat Metropolitana de Serveis Hidràulics approved a 2027-2031 investment plan including €5 million for a new reservoir, and the regional government has sent the Mancomunitat a draft agreement to fund the Montroi reservoir.

The session closed with the announcement of the next meetings: a committee and an extraordinary plenary on the morning of Monday 2 November for the draw of polling station staff ahead of the general election on 29 November, which will not be broadcast, and the next televised ordinary plenary on 26 November.

Source: broadcast of the plenary session of the Ajuntament de Montserrat (YouTube channel) and the agenda published on montserrat.es.