The Budget has now been approved for the first of a number of major investments into the infrastructure, particularly the road network, around San Miguel de Salinas, with works expected to get under way next year on the first such improvement.

In an exclusive interview with The Leader Newspaper, the Deputy Mayor and Councillor for Urban Planning, Sergio Correas Ferrer, confirmed that finance has now been received to fund improvements to the Camino de la Balsa, the road connecting the town with Las Fillipinas urbanisation and Villamartin, which will see a widening of the road as well as the addition of a pedestrian walkway and cycle track connecting the two areas.

The final kilometre of the present road, where it meets the CV941, in the direction of San Miguel, will be re-routed, taking it along a straight line to the junction with the CV 952, Carr de Rebate, where a new roundabout will be built.

Cllr Ferrer said that this will eliminate many of the dangerous curves and bends in the present road, which have been responsible for a number of fatal accidents in recent years.

He explained that final documentation and tenders are now being prepared and following the Municipal elections next month, the new councillor for Urban Planning will be expected to complete all the necessary processes in order to get the work underway.

By that time, of course, following the upcoming resignation of Ángel Sáez Huertas, Sergio Ferrer hopes to have assumed the mantle of San Miguel mayor.

He told me that “Angel has been the mayor for 15 years during which time he has worked extremely hard on behalf of everyone living and holidaying in the area, but he feels that he would now like to sit back and remove some of the pressures that he has been under as mayor, and although he will still retain an involvement in the Partido Popular and in local politics, he wants to spend more time with his family and to enjoy more of his retirement, which is only natural after so many years.”

As such Cllr Ferrer is extremely excited by the challenges that he now faces. “We have some very good people on the PP list going into the municipal elections and I hope that we will do very well. We have a good record of achievement in the town and there are many more projects that I have initiated and that I personally want to see through to their conclusion.”

“One of the next major schemes for which I will soon receive the budget will be the road improvements at the Las Fillipinas end of the Camino de la Balsa, just beyond Captain Morgan’s Bar, at the junction with Calle Fillipinas and Calle Richard Wagner. That whole area will be completely remodelled with the construction of a new roundabout at the junction and the complete renewal of all the roads leading off it. If the PP is re-elected the improvements will be prioritised to take place early in the next legislature.”

But as Sergio Ferrer now looks ahead to the municipal elections in just 4 weeks’ time, and reflects on his efforts as a San Miguel councillor, he told me that he still has many ambitions to fulfil in San Miguel de Salinas.

“I am extremely honoured to be selected to lead the Partido Popular into the elections as I firmly believe that here in Spain you can do whatever you truly desire. I have always carried that with me. I am honoured to be in that position and I hope that if I am elected as mayor I can show others that they too can do what they really want to do in life, and that I can also continue in my efforts to make things better for the people who live in this wonderful town of San Miguel de Salinas.”