The bells of the turret of the Town Hall of Aldeanueva de San Bartolomé (Toledo) will continue to ring punctually every hour between midnight and 6 a.m., as decided by popular vote of the town’s residents.
The consultation, opened by the municipality led by Mayor Ángel Farao, resulted in a total of 149 votes, out of about 400 people called to participate during the consultation, with 147 votes for maintaining the chimes against only 2 for stopping them at dawn.
As the councillor for the Environment, Urban Planning and Maintenance of the municipality, Gustavo Delgado, explained to Europa Press, The consultation opened on Monday, September 16th.after a series of complaints from neighbors during the summer months and remained open until this Friday, September 20 at 12:00 p.m.Today we have 300 people, but in August we are close to 3,000.”explained the councilor about the number of people affected. “They came to comment on the chimes, because I understand perfectly that at night it can disturb sleep,” he said, stressing that the number of complaints exceeded that shown by the results of the referendum.
Faced with the controversy that has arisen, the local government team decided to “give the neighbors a voice”and as the best way to materialize it or to feel valued and heard, through the referendum.
Delgado acknowledged that The referendum expressed the feelings of the majority of the populationalthough he defended the relevance of the consultation since “in the neighboring towns, Campillo de la Jara, for example, the bells do not ring from noon to eight in the morning.”
Dozens of residents of the municipality went to the headquarters of the City Hall to know first-hand the result of the consultation, which was also transmitted to them through a digital platform of the municipal parties after the planned recount. Most of them celebrated the result of the referendum, defending the relevance of keeping the chimes ringing in the early morning, given that “it’s something that has been there all our lives.”
In this line Aurora has manifested herselfa neighbor who has lived in the town “for 23 years,” who pointed out that the bells rang punctually every hour. “It lasted a lifetime,” Aurora said, adding that “in every town, there is this.”
The neighbor, in favor of maintaining the chimeshighlighted the result of the consultation, defending that the neighbors “in general, are in favor of ringing the bells.” “I like it, I like the sound it has. And if you don’t like it, well, I tell you the same thing, they should put earplugs and go to the hills, because they don’t listen to anyone there,” he added.
However, despite the results, there was no shortage a dissident neighbor. This is the case of Sergiowhich is “only five meters from the bells of the Town Hall tower.” “It bothers me from time to time because when there is a lot of stress or you are tired and all that and you want to sleep, you can’t sleep, because it rings and it’s like a hammer blow,” the neighbor explained.
Despite his opposition, Sergio acknowledged the result of the consultation with sportsmanshipexplaining that he understands the neighbors’ reasons for wanting to keep them since “it’s a familiar sound” and many older neighbors “are accompanied by them.” “I don’t care anyway, I’ll go to the mountains to sleep or something,” he says humorously.
The referendum presented by the City Council has aroused the interest of the population, a factor that Gustavo Delgado highlighted as positive to encourage participation.
“I consider this positive because it indicates that there is an initiative on the part of the people.in which everyone defends what they really believe they should defend,” he said in this sense.
In this sense, he indicated that this will probably not be the last consultation carried out in Aldeanueva de San Bartolomé, since “The neighbors know that they have all their rights”. “Furthermore, we encourage you to come here to the City Hall and let us know if you have any questions or problems and we will continue working here to evaluate them and materialize them if it is really appropriate,” Delgado concluded.
