The Spanish Network of Healthy Cities (RECS), is a section of the Federation of Municipalities that works in coordination with the Ministry of Health, Consumption and Social Welfare and was born in 1988, within the WHO Healthy Cities project.
A healthy city is one in which health is placed prominently on the social, economic and political agenda.
Local entities can act on public health thanks to competences in housing, urban planning, environment, sports, etc.
Beyond what the health sector can contribute, promoting healthy cities is to create spaces where walking is easier and more attractive, with less vehicle fumes, more breathable and participatory.
It is also more friendly spaces for people with reduced mobility where they do not find barriers and can move safely.
"From Ganar Totana we have always considered a sustainable and human urban development as a priority, where people and their quality of life are at the center of urban planning. This is how we gathered it in the project with which we presented ourselves in May to the neighbors and neighboring. Many of the objectives of the RECS coincide with the way we see cities, such as the restructuring of traffic within urban areas and pedestrianization. "
That is why one of the first measures we took in this legislature was the elimination of parking lots in the environment listed as a Site of Cultural Interest of the town hall and the Church of Santiago, as a previous step to pedestrianization that we have recently culminated in a first phase.
We will continue with the creation of public spaces in the districts that have more deficit of them, through the Project 'This is not a plot' and we will enable parking areas to prevent the greatest concentration of traffic in the center.
"An adaptation period is always required in the face of changes, but if we take a look at any city around us, inside and outside of Spain, the tendency is to approach the model that is proposed through the RECS, where it is first health and well-being while encouraging trade and tourism in the center of the cities, creating more friendly and passable spaces.That is why we would consider the incorporation of Totana into this organization very positive in order to exchange experiences as to health and sustainable development. "
