Residents in Orihuela Costa have written to Valencian Community President Carlos Mazón with a clear message: “Orihuela Coast needs your help.” The Cabo Roig and Lomas Residents Association has sent a list of urgent shortcomings that are impacting the daily lives of those living in Orihuela Costa.
The neighbourhood organisation, which represents 700 members and their families, all of them residents of Orihuela Costa, defines itself as a non-profit organisation that does not charge membership fees and has no public or private funding: “We are altruistic, independent, without political affinity and we defend the interests of the residents with a positive and proactive attitude,” explains the association head Tomás Moreno in the letter.
“The situation is chaotic” in Orihuela Costa he says and stresses that the area has a unique case law, different from other municipalities such as Guardamar del Segura, Torrevieja or Pilar de la Horadada. Because although the Vega Baja coastline is in continuous expansion, with accelerated urban development, which welcomes important migratory flows and a large contingent of residential and holiday tourism there is an inherent delay in infrastructures and services of all kinds. This is aggravated in the case of Orihuela, where “there is a gap between the dimensioning of public services and the real capacity to be provided throughout the municipal area,” he points out.
According to the association, this leads to “huge shortcomings” in essential matters such as waste collection and treatment, street cleaning, maintenance of green areas, security, road maintenance or essential infrastructure, which are particularly acute on the coast, since “the bipolarity of the municipality produces a continuous imbalance: services are concentrated in the main municipality, as are votes,” highlight the letter.
In terms of population, there are around 30,000 registered residents and another 45,000 who are not included in the census, as well as 75,000 residents who are present for more than six months and 100,000 tourist rental places. “In a municipality sized for 40,000 inhabitants in the urban centre and outlying areas and 30,000 on the coast, it is a gap that is often insurmountable,” he stresses, adding that “no politician at the head of our autonomous community has ever taken this problem seriously, but we have never had a president so close to this reality.”
“What is essential is not provided, what is important is not planned – and therefore does not exist -, what is urgent is not resolved, the future is not studied and therefore we are condemned to disaster,” concludes the letter, which calls on the regional President not to leave them “unattended,” encouraging him to hold to a meeting to discuss solutions.