The residents who live next door to Antoni Gaudí's renowned Sagrada Família basilica are, once again, unhappy. Explanations given this week by the temple's construction board for suspending their talks with their Barcelona neighbours did not go down well. Up to three thousand people who live beside the world-famous unfinished religious structure have long had their homes threatened by the plan to construct a massive staircase to access the temple from the other side of Carrer Mallorca, on the basilica's seaward face. In June this year, they were already critical of the Barcelona city council for suspending meetings of the negotiation table created to discuss the issue - it has met only once, in 2020. "If they are so eager to negotiate, let them keep negotiating with us", was the reaction from the Association of Residents Affected by the Sagrada Família Construction.
On Thursday this week, as part of a press conference on the milestones to be reached over the coming months in the ongoing construction of the basilica - among them, the completion of two more towers, those of the evangelists Mark and Luke at the end of 2022 - the general director of the Sagrada Família construction board, Xavier Martínez, attributed the stalling of negotiations with neighbours to the municipal government, noting that after a first tripartite meeting - city council, neighbourhood groups and construction board - at the beginning of 2020, "the pandemic interrupted the negotiation table", and for that reason the construction boss said his team were "waiting for the city council to call us again".
Speaking to ElNacional.cat, Salvador Barroso, president of the association of affected residents, expressed his disagreement with Martínez's position and reminded him that although the Barcelona city council "has the last word", if the will of the Sagrada Família board is to negotiate the resolution of the conflict, it can "sit down and negotiate with us, because in the end we are the ones with whom they have to reach an agreement". In fact, Barroso recalls that the Sagrada Família is "a private entity" and as such can negotiate with neighbouring groups, even if the final agreement must be "validated" by the city council.
"They have never wanted to sit down with us"
"The construction board has never wanted to sit down with the association", recalls Barroso, "nor with the other entity involved, the Sagrada Família Residents' Association" - and for this he accuses them of maintaining "an attitude of arrogance". Barroso, who denies that the design of the staircase project can be attributed to the architect Antoni Gaudí, has accused the construction board of "not wanting to sit down with anyone who is not under the umbrella of the city council", and for this reason regretted that now "there is no meeting called", which is why they do not rule out making a new push to get attention like the action they took last June.
In any case, the affected residents express their willingness to negotiate directly with the construction board, but they also point out the city council's lack of disposition, when there are just a few months before the municipal elections. "This issue is a hot potato for the city council", he adds. However, those affected point out that the construction board continues "asserting its most extreme position" in the debate, which implies refusing to give up on building the staircase, and faced with this situation, the neighbours say they will also defend their line.