Bilbao sports center fees: Privatization of Bilbao sports center prices stirs up the opposition
Outdoor swimming pools at the Txurdinaga sports center. /
The Bilbao Kirolak and Azkuna Zentroa boards will go on to approve the rates, which will not be endorsed by the Plenary, which upsets the opposition
The Bilbao City Council has stopped considering the prices of sports centers as public rates. At the moment it does not change, but from now on they are private prices. The Plenary, which takes place in the absence of the mayor, Juan Mari Aburto, has approved three substantial changes. Before, the Governing Board and then the Plenary approved the rates, which were later collected in a fiscal ordinance. From now on, the councils of the municipal companies Azkuna Zentroa and Bilbao Kirolak will be in charge of approving the prices, which will not go through the plenary session, nor will they be included in local regulations that are subject to objections. That is why the bylaws of both companies have been modified so much – so that they have the authority to approve prices – and the rate tables of the sports centers have been eliminated from the fiscal ordinance. The government team has introduced this change because it changes the legal status of these revenues and based on a ruling by the Supreme Court – issued as a result of a lawsuit initiated by the winner of the Madrid sports centers against the administration then led by Manuela Carmena, who wanted to lower the rates. The government team understands that since it is not the City Council itself that provides these sports services, but rather two municipal companies, they are no longer considered rates and therefore become private prices that compete with companies. The decision has stirred up the opposition as a block, which denounces that the rates of the sports centers are going to stop being approved under the light and stenographers of the plenary public debate. “They will be decided in an office behind closed doors,” Raquel González, from the PP, has denounced.
From the Government team it has been replicated that all municipal groups have representation on the boards of directors responsible for approving the rates. But the opposition believes that there is a cat inside and that the maneuver is related, in one way or another, to the award of the new La Casilla facility, which will remain for four decades in the hands of the sports manager in charge of its construction. The prices for the user must be regulated by Bilbao Kirolak. Part of the opposition considers that the rates will grow, and from the PP it is also feared that, with this modification, competition will be made to the Bilbao gyms.
Elkarrekin Podemos, through two amendments, has unsuccessfully tried to have the rates discussed in the board of directors and then endorsed by the Plenary. “Everything will be done in a less democratic way. What has become clear is that they do not want these rates to go through the Plenary, and it is not known why, “said Xabier Jiménez. “Based on whose interests has that decision been made? It is moving towards privatization and taking relevant decisions out of the public sphere, such as prices that arise for many people », he said. From the PP, Carlos García has denounced the “opacity” that the modifications imply and believes that the changes are made to compete against private gyms “that generate so many jobs in Bilbao” and that the sector is harmed. “It does not benefit transparency, nor the prices that Bilbaoans are going to pay, nor the sector.”
From EH Bildu, Alba Fatuarte explained that the Azkuna Zentroa board was called urgently the day before to vote on the modification of the statutes, but that she had to do so without documentation. The point was read out loud. “Things have been done wrong and in a hurry and we don’t see reasons, we don’t understand why. This has all been quick and sloppy,” she said. Bruno Zubizarreta has also opposed the decision, which he believes only deepens the privatization model of sports services that began in 2008, by which most services are outsourced. He has accused the local government of “entering the price battle with private entities. It is intended to compete with private gyms. And La Casilla is a key element, because a public service is going to be delivered to an investment group»
On behalf of the exposed government team, Marta Ajuria stated that the City Council has only implemented this measure to comply with the new jurisprudence and that it will not affect citizens at all. In fact, she has explained that the councilors will have more opportunity to discuss the rates within the board of directors than at present. In these bodies, a “more calm debate” can be held and more accurate decisions can be made about the services provided, added the mayor Gonzalo Olabarria, who has reiterated “that the boards of directors of the companies that provide these services to approve the prices, and not to the Plenary». In addition, he stated, “private prices require a market analysis and must be offered in a similar amount, what destroys the competition are excessively subsidized prices, not private ones.” The mayor of Sports, Itxaso Erroteta, added that the Plenary will continue to control the budgets and accounts of both Bilbao Kirolak and Azkuna Zentroa.