The Design department moves to the Town Hall to take advantage of synergies with other departments

The municipal design department will move next March to the consistorial building to facilitate their relationship and work with different departments and take advantage of the synergies with other areas. This was announced by the spokesman of the local government, José Ramón González de Zárate, who recalled that the Design department "is part of the Urban Scene department and, consequently, it makes all the sense to be located in the same floor of the Town Hall where this department is located ".

De Zárate indicated that with this transfer, which was personally communicated to the staff of Design, the same policy of centralization of resources that is being applied for the legal advice department is followed, since a good part of the city council's lawyers have begun to settle in the Secretary area, thus freeing external municipal facilities that were occupying.

The spokesman and councilor of Urban Scene has remarked, therefore, "that the department of Design will continue to work and carrying out the works of posters or design commissioned from different councils in a new location". Specifically, the municipal designer will be installed in the department of ​​Engineering, "with the draughtsmen".

De Zárate stressed that these facilities are equipped with "powerful machinery of design and printing" that is used for the preparation of plans and in many cases is the same used by the department of Design. In any case, an inventory of the existing machinery in Design is being carried out to transfer what is necessary to Engineering.

With regard to the administrative assigned to Design, he will reinforce the department of ​​Urbanism, in which there is a lack of personnel. However, he has clarified that the administrative needs of Design "will not be neglected because the personnel in the Engineering department will proceed with them".

The spokesman indicated that this transfer "in addition to improving the efficiency in the service, will also allow savings as the facilities currently occupied by the Design department will stop generating electricity, water and cleaning costs"; and he added that this relocation is possible "because we have enough space on the fourth floor to house the design staff".

On the latter, and before the accusations launched by the socialist municipal group, the councillor has clarified that the staff of this department has been reduced to two people for various reasons "that have nothing to do with a dismantled disguised in this area." Thus, one of the Design workers "retired years ago and the position has not been able to occupy" due to the limitations established by the Law regarding contracting; and another "requested his transfer to another department for personal reasons". As for the external designer who had hired the City Council in the previous term, De Zárate stated that "the intention of this government was to maintain him, but we had to dispense with his services after the budget of 2016 in which the PSOE , together with other groups, approve an amendment to eliminate the budget for 'Studies and Technical Design Works'. That suppressed item, which was endowed with 12,000 euros, was the one that paid for this contract.