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A Proposal by Cristina Gómez Lahoz  (Av 2 MON, 2008-2009) – About 450 words                                               

I have been living in Getafe for 25 years now, so I have experienced a lot of changes in this city. It has grown a lot during all these years and its citizens have seen many improvements, such as better services, better buildings and, generally speaking, a better standard of living for all. Nevertheless, there are some aspects related to the environment that should be improved.

Pollution

Pollution has risen to high levels in the last years due to increasing traffic and to the activity of the factories surrounding the city. I think that to tackle this problem the Council should invest more in public transport and divert the traffic from the town centre. In order to do so, some car parks could be built in the outskirts to deter people from driving into the city centre. The Council should also launch an information campaign to make citizens learn about and respect these measures.

Green areas

The city has grown very much, but not in terms of  parks and green areas, at least in the town centre, where a lot of people including children and elderly people are living and need these spaces. Although -- I must admit -- the new neighbourhoods enjoy enough lawn areas, this is not the case of the old neighbourhoods. My proposal at this point is for Council to set aside a considerable proportion of the land from parcels where an old building was demolished to grow gardens or public sport centres instead. An important proportion of the budget should be allocated to preserve these areas.

Using renewable energy sources

Nowadays not only is the economic crisis affecting all countries, but we are also addressing one of the most important environmental catastrophes, i.e. climate change. For this reason the Local Governments should do something to help mitigate this situation promoting, for instance, the use of renewable energy sources by installing solar panels, which might be very suitable for our sunny weather. By doing this, Councils could be taking an important step in contributing to the creation of employment.

Encouraging people’s participation

Finally, I would like to add a crucial aspect, that is, people’s participation. All these measures cannot possibly be implement without the involvement of an informed citizenship. Most citizens are concerned about these issues, but do not know what to do about it all; others are not so aware. We should ask our Council to set up a campaign to encourage citizens to take care of the environment by adopting specific actions, such as using public transport and keeping their parks clean.

I strongly believe that our environment deserves this effort and that it is a worthy value to invest our taxes on it.