The Ministry of Finance and Public Function has sent a letter to the City of Picassent which gives the ok to the Sustainable and Integrated Urban Development Strategy (Edusi) project, which will involve a total investment of 10 million €. Five of them will come from Europe and the other 5 will be from municipal funds. In fact, the provincial institution will provide 400,000 € for the esplanade of the Hermitage full project, through the plan of Municipal Services and Works (SOM).

This is the third ministerial call, co-financed by the Operational Programme Pluriregional European Regional Development Funds (ERDF) to co-finance the Edusi. We are talking about the first time that the picassentino consistory has obtained such significant direct grant from Brussels. Picassent, together with Benidorm, L’Alfàs del Pi, Ontinyent and Sagunt are the five municipalities of the Valencian Community that have obtained the grant, in total 28.9 million euros, which will try to improve social, economic and environmental conditions. The Valencian Community is the fourth that will receive more money, behind Andalusia (189.3 million), Castilla-La Mancha (45.1) and the Canary Islands (30.3).

An entire village has worked to obtain these grants, since the network of associations, such as the entities of the municipality, representatives of the Consell de la Infància, students of the IES L’Om, and the neighbors of Picassent, along with the spokespersons of each and every one of the political groups, that make up the consistory, have made it possible for Europe to finance works of constructions.

Picassent knows, as a municipality, how it wants to draw it’s future and therefore has designed a village leader in terms of urban mobility, energy efficiency of buildings and municipal public services and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT’s). In addition, we are going to work into the modernization of the electronic administration and the intelligent urban services for the development of the Smart City, and also the conservation and protection of the environment.

The Councillor for Urban Planning, Lola Albert, expressed her satisfaction with the “European recognition of a job well done by our municipality”, while at the same time she wanted to remind that “the path has only begun to happen towards a more modern, inclusive, green and sustainable municipality”.

Albert underlined the remodelling works importance  of the esplanade and the one around the Hermitage, which will mean an investment of more than 2 million euros, financed at 50-50, as for example the rest of the works within the European strategy. This September, the first and most important phase will be put out to tender, which includes the most important part of the actions planned in the heart of the village. The final objective involves reordering traffic and gaining pedestrian space, as well as creating a room for cultural use of more than 400 m². The execution period for these works is 9 months.

Social regeneration, rehabilitation of the productive and commercial fabric, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to the urban area and increasing the use of renewable energies, are other action lines of a programme that fits within municipal policies.