Por María Izquierdo 
Carnero warns that they could have «gone to court» over the commitment signed by Puente with the Goya Awards
The groups of the Popular Party and Vox, which form the government team in the City Council of Valladolid, have approved this Monday in the municipal Plenary session the specific modification of the Organic Regulations with which they seek to provide legal support to the position of the General Director of Coordination of Public Policy of the Mayor’s Office; and the initial approval of the new ordinance on bicycles, personal mobility vehicles, and bike lanes, which responds to the annulment last year of the modification of the cycling lanes to eliminate some created by the previous government team.
These are two of the issues that have been discussed this Monday in the municipal Plenary session for the month of May 2025, after addressing the resolutions derived from the plenary for the debate on the state of the city. All this, including a half-hour break to participate in the reception of VRAC as champions of the King’s Cup of Rugby, has added up to more than six hours of Plenary, the longest of the current term.
In the matters coming from the Government Commission, Finance, Human Resources, Economic Promotion, and Tourism, the organic regulation modification has been approved with the votes in favor of PP and Vox, which, as Juan Carlos Hernández (PSOE) and Rocío Anguita (VTLP) have recalled, comes as a result of the annulment by a judicial sentence of the creation of the position of General Director of Coordination of Public Policies, a position held since October 2023 by Indalecio Escudero, a frequent collaborator of Carnero since his time at the Diputación de Valladolid.
The position known to the municipal opposition as ‘mayor B’ is a «pseudo-official» position, according to Luis Vélez, which Carnero created to be able to assume part of his functions when deciding to run as a candidate for the Senate.
Anguita has criticized the «lack of debate» with which the government team wants to address this issue as a «specific» modification of the regulations after the left-wing formation claims to have requested during this same term on several occasions the meeting of the regulation committee, which in this case has not been convened, to address several issues susceptible to modification.
The VTLP councilor has pointed out that the government team assured that they were going to appeal the sentence that annulled the creation of the position, so she speculated with the possibility that they have not finally executed that action. «If the courts rule in their favor, they will have made a modification that was not necessary,» asserted the spokesperson, who has described the municipal government as «very poor managers» who make «one botched job after another.»
The Councilor of Finance and Personnel, Francisco Blanco, has explained that the two allegations presented against the modification have been dismissed –one of them from the Neighborhood Federation Antonio Machado– and has argued that this issue has had two legal pronouncements, one in the first instance favorable to the City Council and a second, that of the TSJCyL, contrary. Therefore, he has argued that the aim is to provide greater «legal security» and it is not about complying with the ruling of the High Court.
Furthermore, Blanco has pointed out that the modification is «only one paragraph» of the text, so it is not considered necessary to start a ‘committee.’
From the Commission of Mobility, Urbanism, Environment, Public Health, and Security, the Regulatory Ordinance on the use of bicycles and mobility in special lanes of road traffic has been initially approved with the votes in favor of PP and Vox, which as the opposition councilors have asserted, also stems from a sentence contrary to municipal interests.
In this case, the annulled agreement is the 2023 Ordinance in which modifications were ordered in several bike lanes and bus taxi lanes that a few years earlier had been modified by the previous government team of PSOE and VTLP.
Aside from that, and although the municipal opposition groups have acknowledged several meetings for dialogue to explain the content of the ordinance, PSOE and VTLP consider that this new text is excessively punitive, «scarcely pedagogical,» and they observe confusing aspects in it.
The VTLP councilor Jonathan Racionero has demanded that the government team withdraw the initial approval — in fact, an amendment was presented for this purpose, which was rejected — and open the way to an open dialogue process. However, both the Mobility councilor, Alberto Gutiérrez, and the Vox councilor Alberto Cuadrado have suggested to the opposition groups to make the necessary notes in the allegations process.
The PP has introduced and approved two specific amendments to clarify aspects of the norm.
Another issue that has led to some controversy has been the modification of the statutes of the Local Public Entity Agua de Valladolid (Aquavall), in which PSOE and VTLP insist that the government team is taking «the first steps» towards a future privatization of the municipal company created in 2017, while the Environment councilor, Alejandro García Pellitero, insists that these are formal modifications.
1.5 MILLION EUROS FOR PÁDEL AND SEPTEMBER FESTIVITIES
In this part of the session, two credit modifications have also been approved, with the opposition of the PSOE and VTLP groups. In the first of them, 1.7 million euros are extracted from the surpluses, of which 750,000 euros are allocated to pay for the Premier Pádel P2 tournament in the Plaza Mayor and 800,000 euros for the Fair and Festivities of the Virgin of San Lorenzo, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the celebration in honor of this patron saint. Of that total amount, 125,000 euros also go to fulfill five actions from the school participatory budgets.
The other credit modification aims to reduce funds from various items to direct them to «certain investments,» as explained by the socialist Alberto Palomino, who questioned whether the budget was prepared «appropriately.»
Following that criticism, the Mayor of Valladolid, Jesús Julio Carnero, and the Finance councilor have criticized the use of surpluses when two years ago the current government team was forced to resort to them «obliged» by the commitment of the PSOE and VTLP with the Goya Awards Gala, something they decided to do despite the mayor’s warning that they could have «gone to court,» but they did not.