The Diputación de Lleida has ceded 84 electric chargers for bicycles and other vehicles to 51 municipalities in recent months, but only 20 are working when the installation deadline expires this summer. The delay has already led five town councils to renounce the equipment distributed by the provincial corporation.
The contradiction was exposed in the plenary session of the institution. The chargers have already been delivered to most municipalities, but a large part still cannot use them due to electricity legalization procedures, a bottleneck that several mayors attributed to the distributor company's actions.
Five municipalities returned the chargers while only 20 are already operational
Seròs, Corbins, Baix Pallars, Conca de Dalt, and La Pobla de Segur have renounced the electric chargers ceded by the Diputación. The data appeared in the plenary debate on a measure that aimed to extend the local charging network and which, a few months before the deadline expires, is still far from being completed.
During the session, Manel Solé, provincial deputy of Impulsem and mayor of La Granja d'Escarp, explained that his municipality has the device ready but has not been able to start it up. Solé attributed the jam to the pending procedure with the electricity company.
"We are encountering unprecedented difficulties for Endesa to finalize the legalization procedure. We have everything ready, but there is no way" - Manel Solé, provincial deputy of Impulsem and mayor of La Granja d'Escarp
Marc Baró, deputy of ERC and mayor of La Pobla de Segur, described the problem in similar terms. In his speech, he maintained that electricity companies are extending the timelines to the point of making agile activation of this type of infrastructure unviable.
In his case, he specified that they have needed more than a year and a half to activate a charger. Baró described the electricity companies' actions as a drama in a deployment that affects municipalities in both Segrià and Pallars.
Joan Talarn linked the follow-up with Endesa to the same plenary session that approved 1.95 million in credits
In response to the complaints, the president of the Diputación, Joan Talarn, committed to following up on the problem and contacting Endesa to try to shorten the legalization deadlines. The intervention came in a session with several municipal-level agreements.
The plenary also approved 1.95 million euros in extraordinary credits for municipalities of more than 4,500 inhabitants, comarca capitals and consells comarcals. The money will be allocated to hire personnel for health inspections in businesses.
Furthermore, the corporation passed a motion in favor of the demands of the educational community. The text prospered after Juan Antonio Serrano, from UA, withdrew a comment about a part of hypocrisy when mixing salary demands and improvement of conditions, after the criticisms from Junts per Catalunya.
The economic agreement sets an allocation of 1.95 million euros to reinforce health inspections in businesses in municipalities of more than 4,500 inhabitants, comarca capitals and consells comarcals.