Rubbish appeal thrown out
TORREVIEJA town hall reported that objections presented over the procedure to contract out a new street cleaning and rubbish collection service for the municipality have been ruled null and void by a court.
Sueña Torrevieja opposition party leader Pablo Samper had appealed to the administrative court after the contract was put out to tender for €389 million for 15 years.
Sr Samper asked the court to examine a number of issues including ‘the fact’ that the contracting out of the service to a private company would cost Torrevieja tax payers €109 million more over 10 years than a service run in house by the local authority.
Sueña claimed that the town hall did not have the financial capacity to pay this extra cost and Torrevieja residents should not have to foot the bill.
Sr Samper claimed the cost would ‘ruin’ the town.
However, council spokesman Federico Alarcón stated on Friday that the administrative court had decided not to accept the challenge made by Sr Samper.
However, he has two months to appeal the decision to a higher court in Valencia.
According to the town hall, the new contract would see ‘modern’ rubbish containers installed around the municipality and bin trucks would run on natural gas.
Rubbish collection and street cleaning in Torrevieja has been mired in controversy since former Partido Popular mayor Pedro Ángel Hernández Mateo was jailed for three years in 2012 for corruption over the awarding of the contract to multi-national company Acciona in 2004.
Although this was a 10-year contract, Acciona is still operating the service.