Xose Antonio SANCHEZ BUGALLO: “Relentless innovation is vital”
As mayor of Santiago de Compostela since 1998, Xose Antonio Sanchez Bugallo admits to having “a veritable vocation for politics” and recounts a profound attachment for his city and for the 93,000 people who call it home. His city is Lead Partner in SUITE, which is dedicated to social housing, and here he shares his analysis and projects.
Senor Bugallo is fully aware of Santiago de Compostela’s exceptional heritage. The city started out as the final destination for pilgrims and has today become a worldwide reference in terms of restoring and preserving local heritage. “Yet, even if tourists come here in droves, Santiago must not become a museum,” Senor Bugallo says. “I want the city to be dynamic, a place where people enjoy living, where they feel at home.” So he decided to put his eggs in the basket of economic diversification, with the long-term goal of welcoming more businesses and more industries, not to mention more workers.As far as the socialist mayor is concerned, this ambitious goal is quite definitely attainable, notably thanks to the urban development plan his city has implemented. “For over 30 years, the city council has worked hard to build social housing and create parks and gardens. And for the past ten years or so, we have focused our attention on facilities and infrastructures. As a result, the city has expanded, the amount of housing available has increased quite considerably (with almost 10,000 houses being built in just 10 years) and above all we have successfully developed the city whilst maintaining local citizens’ quality of life.”Intelligent urban planning
Xose Antonio Sanchez Bugallo continually boasts about the urban planning work that his predecessors launched and that was improved by his own team. The regional government, the Xunta de Galicia, today sees Santiago as the city of urban excellence.
In this field, “relentless innovation is vital,” the mayor says. “Since 1970, Santiago has developed social housing policies. These have already proved their worth, but we also want to discuss the issue further and find out about the best practices that others have implemented in this field. We are keen to push social inclusion further and to look into the ecological aspects of housing.” So Senor Bugallo has high expectations of the work with the other SUITE partners and counts on the support of CECODHAS, the European Liaison Committee for Social Housing. “Their support could provide a real boost in terms of capitalising on and disseminating this project and its underlying theme.”