Ángel Noguera, Councillor for Infrastructure, has appeared alongside the Deputy Mayor of Orihuela, José Aix and the Councillor for Education and Citizen Security, Ramón López, to inform the community that intense an intense cleaning programme is being implemented in public buildings.
The purpose of the service is to maintain in hygienic and health conditions the more than 70 municipal buildings and facilities such as educational centres, municipal offices, medical offices, civic centres, police stations, cultural facilities and museums.
This service is currently provided through indirect management, with a contract with the company Actúa Servicios y Medio Ambiente with an annual amount that the city council pays for this service to the successful bidder is € 1,693,394.99 per year, VAT included.
Councillor Ángel Noguera, explained that “in these circumstances due to the urgent need to disinfect in the face of Covid-19, we have opted to extend the contract. This extension takes into account the new centres such as the new school Playas de Orihuela. It has also been increased to a total of 6,885 hours in educational centres, 1,711 hours in ordinary buildings, and 120 hours in Local Police stations”.
This extension is initially proposed until June 30, 2021, in the hope that the evolution of Covid-19 will then allow a return to a normal and regular service and the end of the school year will see a reduction in the service. The service will be reviewed or a new contract tendered for later in the year depending on the development of the pandemic in 2021. This will be assessed in the spring.
The decision to increasing cleaning has been made despite the fact that the schools may or may not remain in operation, and it will be the City Council that, from here, evaluates how and in what way the service is provided, especially in educational centres.
The Councillor for Education was keen to send a ‘message of tranquillity’ to parents and teachers, reassuring them that the City Council is responsible and aware of the situation and the needs of the educational centres in these exceptional circumstances. He also stressed that the government was committed to providing correct coverage to CEIP Playas de Orihuela on the coast, which needed a new organisation of its cleaning protocol, given that the new centre opened two years ago, in 2018 and so was not foreseen in the previous budget or contract.