4th November 2024
Sitges News

Sitges local residents concerned about location of service station at Bòbila II

The development of the Bòbila II area in Sitges continues to cause displeasure among local residents, who have expressed their rejection regarding parts of the project, especially the location of the service station.

A few days ago they met again with the local councillor for urbanism, Carme Gasulla, to clear up several issues that concern them and try to make proposals to improve the position of this new area, which will completely change the image of the entrance towards Sitges Centre via the C-32.

The Sitges Town Council maintains that its capacity to intervene is limited, but insists that it will ensure compliance with the law despite recognising that the impact will be greater than desired for the local community.

One of the most worrying issues is the location of the new service station. The Association of Residents said that ‘the planned placement of the Repsol station next to the homes on Calle Ferrers and Eliseu Meifrèn without respecting the distances recommended by scientists, who consider that they should be between 50 and 100 metres, is intolerable’.

The residents of the neighbourhood claim they will suffer, among other things, from health problems, noise or the increase in traffic in the area.

However, a technical report from the council states that ‘the gas station will be equipped with a steam recovery system to avoid the emission of volatile gases into the atmosphere’.

In order to ‘avoid uncomfortable noises that complicate the daily life of the neighbourhood, we have taken into account the suggestions of putting a green roof to avoid the noise of the gas station’s activity, which will be equipped with photovoltaic panels to generate electrical energy for the same operation of the service station, and the surplus will be transferred to the inhabitants of Bòbila’, they said.

The opening hours of the car wash, from 7am to 10pm, and of the gas station, from 6am to 10pm, have also been limited, with the exception of the summer months, which will open until midnight.

Another of the agreements resulting from the meetings between the council and the Association of Residents, is the extension of the Passeig de la Tramuntana to make a more agreeable entrance to the town, which ‘will dignify the area’, according to the words of the councillor of urbanism. She said that the demands of the neighbours have been taken into account to make it one-way, adding four rows of trees and the bike lane’.

The Association states that ‘they have not taken into account the demand for more trees or the change of the bike lane to gain more space for pedestrians’, claiming that everything was already already laid with concrete.

This project was approved by the Plenary in March 2016, in a tight vote of 11 to 10, with votes in favour of CiU, ERC, NH and PP political groups. The PSC, Cs, CUP, ICV and SGI voted against it, in a government in which the mayor was Miquel Forns, and the Councillor for Urbanism, Jordi Mas.

One of the people who voted against it was Carme Gasulla, who confesses that ‘being an issue approved by the Plenary, it must be carried out without fail’. Initially, it was an area that had to be used for single-family homes and it was changed to be able to build a service station and for commercial use.

Gasulla said that ‘we have invested a lot of hours and a lot of effort in a project that is closed and we have changed everything we could’, and that the builder has been incorporating things, but ‘if we tighten the rope too much, it will end up breaking’.

Once the environmental assessment of the service station is presented, the population and neighbours will be notified, as required by law. Citizens will have 10 days to present formal comments about the project. These will be sent to the Penedès Territorial Planning Commission. The Association of Neighbours hopes that at this point ‘the concerns or contributions of the community will be taken into consideration’.

Click here to follow Sitges in English on Facebook, as well as Twitter and Instagram.

Click here to return to Sitges in English home page. Click here for our full archive of Sitges News reports.

Click here to get your business or services listed on our DIRECTORY.

Recent Posts

High rental prices means younger generation looking for a life away from Sitges

News Desk

More tourists, but for fewer days

News Desk - L'Eco de Sitges

Motorcyclist dies after being hit on the C-32 near the Quint Mar neighbourhood

News Desk - L'Eco de Sitges

Prosecutor’s Office seeks prison terms for the case of the Pins Vens car park

News Desk - L'Eco de Sitges

Opinion: ‘Legalise it!’

Eve Schnitzer

Creative Connexions Ireland: Sitges ’24 – Irish Arts Festival returns to Catalonia

Features

Leave a Comment