The last full council meeting approved the amendment of the current Use Plan. The Use Plan governs business growth and public road occupation, among other economic activities. The review was a must to fix the current state of public roads, which is creating issues provoked by the lack of tools allowing a more strict reading of the current legislation, and also by the intermittent unbalance between Sitges as a tourist town and Sitges as a residential town.
The current Use Plan was implemented in 2006, when the economic reality was significantly different from the present one. Legislation dating from that year was created to prevent the proliferation of real estate agencies and bank branches, which expanded all over taking over much of rental property. Currently, the economic sectors on a full bull market are more heterogeneous in nature; tourism, catering and service sector in general. Sitges makes a living out of such economic activities thanks to the fact that profit is distributed among broad sectors of the population (owners, employees, dealers, suppliers ...). But at the same time, it is also true that we must establish strict regulations to avoid chaotic scenarios.
The current legislation contains some loopholes and allows double readings, generating unwanted situations such as over occupation of public roads and proliferation of certain concerns that do not favor the image of Sitges as a quality resort. The Council needs tools for establishing such regulations and a Use Plan is a must.
The Deputy Mayor for Economic Development, Tourism and Beaches, Aurora Carbonell will carry out the review. She will do it by furthering participation of economic and social sectors (with special attention to the Hospitality Association as the representative body of the sector) and the various political parties with municipal presence. We have a lot at stake in this review, but I am fully convinced that, with the help of Aurora and the participation of different sectors, we will achieve the goal we are pursuing.
Sitges has been a touristic town for more than 50 years and we want to continue being so in the future. Let no one think that we will limit the development of our economy. On the contrary, it is because we want to promote tourism that we need a new Use Plan to regulate development. In this commitment to quality tourism, we must limit those activities that do not add value and could even limit growth.
We want a strong tourist town, but compatible with the rest of residents. Sitges must remain open to various tourist profiles that enrich our population (family cultural, business, entertainment, gay ...) but all must live in the best possible harmony. And this is not easy. For this reason, we need tools and instruments to help achieve it. The Use Plan is a must to obtain such tools.
