THE LOOKOUT | The municipality of Benavente and the lack of places in daycare centers

About the desperation of many mothers in the municipality of Benavente, faced with the municipal inertia in the face of the lack of places in local daycare centers, reported by O MIRANTE, in which the council executive “shakes the water out of the coat” justifying the delay in Security procedures Social and lack of money.
The allegation of the scarcity of financial resources in a municipality that, in the “Forecast Documents 2024” (available on the municipality’s website) states as the first pillar of the municipal budget the “desire to provide citizens with a life with minimum standards of comfort, health and physical and psychological development” but which, throughout the 92 pages of the document, does not use the word “daycare” once.
And that, for this very reason, devotes ZERO euros to investment in this equipment – ​​but allocates almost 1.5 million to the construction of parks and gardens. And who knows how to “withdraw” almost 4.7 million from the European FEDER funds, dedicating almost 300 thousand to the “famous” cycle paths and close to 1.2 million to the “requalification” of Praça do Município, in Benavente, and Praça da República, in Samora Correia, but alleges the scarcity of resources to help mothers’ despair.
And that, given this and other situations of clear needs of the population, there is no hesitation in using more than 1.1 million euros intended to “promote social inclusion and combat poverty […] to improve access, including through infrastructure, to social, educational, cultural and recreational services […] of people with disabilities, children and the elderly” (European Regional Development Fund Regulation and the Cohesion Fund) to spend on the requalification of a garden, as was done in the case of Parque Ruy Luís Gomes.
He is not even ashamed of budgeting around 350 thousand euros to support a gastronomic festival – but he is not concerned about making even a tenth of this money available to support the municipality’s children.
Benavente certainly deserved a little more than the mediocrity of this executive – but also a little better than the indolence of this opposition.
Mario Alexandre Maciel