Several huge signs have appeared in the town as the Council begins to carry out projects relating to the Fondo Estatal de Inversión Local, or ‘Plan Zapatero’ as it has become known.
The Plan Zapatero is an €8 billion stimulus package designed to help, in particular, the construction industry in Spain and Nerja is getting €3.6 million out of this pot.
Nerja submitted 28 projects under the Plan Zapatero and the first four are now just being started. These are improvements to lighting in calle Julio Romero (€27,000), improvements to drainage on Burriana beach (€36,000), improvements to the swimming pool (€50,000) and the cemetery (€90,000).
Another four or five projects are due to commence next week and before the summer, all but two should have started. Improvements to calle Carmen and phase 3 and 4 of the calle Carabeo works have been postponed until after the summer. Not that phase 2 has been finished yet!
All the projects included under the Plan Zapatero have to be finished by June 2010.
Incidentally, the vast majority of these 28 projects were included in the Partido Popular manifesto at the last election. All but one of the projects is being carried out by local firms.