Neighbors of Baix Ter gathered this Thursday in Jafre, the Parlavà roundabout and the entrance to Verges to demand improvements in several roads in the area that, they maintain, the Government promised them with an investment of 50 million euros. The protest, promoted by the Prou Excuses platform with the support of the town councils, has coincided with the Verges procession, a celebration that attracts thousands of people to the municipality.
During the day, the protesters have distributed leaflets among the drivers, many of them arrived from outside the region to attend the procession and the Dansa de la Mort. The organizers denounce that the Govern does not comply with the budget presented to execute the committed road improvements.
Claim for safety and daily mobility
The platform identifies as priority axes the roads Gi 642 and Gi 643, which connect Torroella de Montgrí with La Pera, Serra de Daró, Parlavà and Rupià until linking with the C 66. On these routes, Prou Excuses denounces serious safety deficits and demands that Territori act.
The other point that centers the protest is the connection of the C 31 with the Gi 634 and the Gi 633, a stretch that connects Torroella de Montgrí with Verges passing through Ullà, and that afterwards continues towards Jafre, Colomers and Sant Jordi Desvalls, already in the Gironès. The platform defends that these roads are fundamental for the daily mobility of the residents.
"The problem is that the roads are narrow, there is no hard shoulder and there are many trucks, cars, heavy machinery like tractors and cyclists and there are many accidents, unfortunately. It must be understood that these are not roads of whim, but rather they connect the Baix Ter with Girona" - Joan Güell, member of Prou Excuses
Güell demands that what was committed be invested to improve safety on roads that he defines as the main access to Baix Ter and as a basic network to cohere the territory.
Traffic jams in Parlavà and at the Verges roundabout
The most numerous concentration has been registered in Parlavà. There, protesters with yellow vests have repeatedly crossed two pedestrian crossings to stop traffic and hand out leaflets to drivers. The action has caused intermittent queues at a point through which vehicles coming from the C 66 and the highway circulate, among them many drivers leaving the Barcelona metropolitan area.
The biggest collapse has occurred in the Verges roundabout, next to the sculpture of the Dance of Death. At that point, the platform has distributed more leaflets among hundreds of drivers arriving from Torroella, la Bisbal, Figueres or Jafre.
The conveners link the protest to the continuity of accidents on narrow roads that connect several municipalities in the area and which, furthermore, provide access to an industrial estate and bear truck traffic. They also warn that in summer and during holiday periods such as Holy Week, the volume of vehicles increases significantly.
"We want everyone to know our daily problems" - Plataforma Prou Excuses
With that idea, the neighbors have taken advantage of one of the days of greatest influx in Verges to make visible a demand that, they assure, affects every day the safety and mobility of the entire Baix Ter.