400,000 euros for the construction of a fronton in a Riojan town of 18 inhabitants. 310,000 euros for the construction of another fronton in another town in La Rioja of 250 inhabitants and 4 million euros for the construction of a sports complex, including a fronton, in another town of 600 inhabitants. These are some of the urban atrocities committed during the boom years in La Rioja and fueled by the real estate bubble. At least the 18 inhabitants of Jalón de Cameros can enjoy their fronton because the neighbors of Ábalos and Sojuela do not even do so.
A pediment that has not been liberated and must be demolished
Ábalos is a municipality in La Rioja with 250 inhabitants that launched a tender at the beginning of 2000 for the construction of a fronton in the town. The work was carried out between 2005 and 2007 and the fronton, whose initial budget was around 222,000 euros, cost 310,000 euros. In the meantime, incidents and deficiencies in the project and in the execution of the work itself, which in fact were paralyzed on several occasions until the work was completed in 2007.
And to correct these deficiencies, the Ábalos City Council requested a repair report on this recently completed infrastructure in 2007. In fact, the architects determined “that the construction is neither finished, nor does it meet the safety conditions necessary for its use, nor can it fulfill the function for which it was designed and built, that of a fronton.” Therefore, the letter continues, “the recommendation is to keep the facility closed until the repairs are made and all the problems are resolved.” And so it goes: the fronton is still closed in August 2024.
In 2011, the repairs needed to make this facility available to the city amounted to 264,000 euros. The pediment did not open. In 2013, the City Hall requested another budget to undertake the repairs and the price was 268,000 euros. Eleven years later, the pediment remains closed and unrepaired.
This is how things are in Ábalos. Since 2007, the municipality has had an unused pediment in which 310,000 euros have been invested. A pediment that needs to be repaired and whose repair cost almost 270,000 euros more than ten years ago. In 2022, the mayor of the municipality, Vicente Urquía, requested a report from the Government of La Rioja and the technicians’ response was clear: the building is at risk of structural collapse, so the best option is to demolish it and demolish it. It would cost around 100,000 euros.
And this is where the Ábalos City Council is currently, looking for funding to solve this problem because, as Urquía acknowledges, “a city with these characteristics cannot face such an expense because we currently have other priorities and actions to undertake.” However, he says, they are “studying the possibility of carrying out a partial demolition of the highest parts, those that are most at risk of collapsing, and selling the land for agricultural pavilions.”
In short, 310,000 euros were spent on a pediment that has never been used and remains closed because it is at risk of collapsing and in which another 100,000 euros will have to be invested to demolish it. “It is located far from the city, about 500 meters, it is cordoned off and access is not easy because it is full of vegetation,” explains Urquía, adding that “everyone in the city knows that you cannot go to the pediment and even ‘There is a sign prohibiting access.’ “We do not want there to be any misfortune until we solve this problem” which is now 17 years old and has swallowed up more than 400,000 euros.
A vandalized and ruined pavilion and pediment
Something similar is happening in Sojuela, a municipality in La Rioja with 600 inhabitants in which four million euros were invested in the construction of a sports complex with a heated swimming pool and a fronton. Infrastructures also planned during the boom years and fueled by the real estate bubble and of which only a completely vandalized skeleton remains.
The mayor of Sojuela, Diego Fernández, acknowledges to Rioja2 that these actions were undertaken “in the middle of a real estate boom but they did not end and that’s it”. And this macro sports complex was born in parallel with the construction of more than a thousand homes by the real estate company Fadesa, which has also given the city’s municipality more than a headache.
As in Ábalos, the mayor of Sojuela acknowledges that the city does not have the economic capacity to complete the work. The figures vary. And while for the mayor of Sojuela, with one million euros the work could be completed, for the councilor of Por La Rioja José Carlos Cantos, with that amount, only the damage caused to the pediment could be resolved. “The finishing of the heated pool is directly unfeasible because it would take around 6 to 7 million euros to finish the work plus the maintenance that a facility with these characteristics requires… which is unfeasible,” he reiterates.
And as if the four million euros swallowed up by this sports complex were not enough, the City Council of Sojuela has also requested a subsidy of 400,000 euros from the Government of La Rioja to install solar panels. But the reality is that there are no license plates or subsidies.
“Nobody knows anything about the solar panels or the grant money, so the Sojuela City Council was forced to ask for a loan to return the money, in total, around 650,000 euros that we just paid a few months ago.” Sojuela has a sports complex with a swimming pool and a fronton that have never been used and have been completely vandalized, for which more than 4.6 million euros have been spent. Economic nonsense and an additional problem, the danger of the area. While the mayor of the municipality assures that “the area has been fenced for years to avoid dangers and that the fence is repaired every time someone digs a hole”, the councilor believes the opposite. “Everyone comes in, they put up a fence 4 years ago, it is broken and has not been repaired. “Any day we will have a misfortune,” he warns, because “there are holes and heights of 25 to 30 meters that constitute a real danger for people, especially young people, who come there to have a drink or for those who go skating at the ice rink.
400,000 euros on a pediment in a town of 18 inhabitants
And although this pediment is not the result of years of economic prosperity or a real estate bubble, the one in Jalón de Cameros has also been questioned due to the necessary investment, 400,000 euros, and the number of inhabitants of the town, 18. At the beginning of 2019, the government of La Rioja of the PP decided to collaborate and finance 90% of this infrastructure. In this way, assured at the time the Executive of La Rioja, “it responded to a priority of Jalón de Cameros with the support for the new space that will guarantee the celebration throughout the year of not only sporting but also cultural and social activities.”
A priority for the Jalón de Cameros City Council that was not a priority for the neighborhood. ““We don’t need sports centers in cities with fewer than twenty inhabitants, what we need are social services, we have been fighting for years to have defibrillators in the cities. The population is older and has no services,” the neighborhood denounced because the announcement of the construction of the pediment coincided with a possible closure of the gas station.
However, despite everything, the inhabitants of Jalón de Cameros and the surrounding area can at least enjoy this pediment, in which thousands of euros have also been invested and which remains open today.
