Demand for basic services on the coast
TENS of thousands of homes in Orihuela Costa lack basic services, causing enormous problems for residents and leaving visitors feeling conned when they see the reality of the area compared to the images used by the town hall to promote tourism, according to opposition parties Cambiemos Orihuela and CLARO.
This is because for decades the town hall has let developers get away with not complying with the legal requirements of their projects, they stated.
They presented a motion in yesterday’s (Thursday) full council meeting calling for the town hall to take responsibility for these areas and improve the services it provides to them.
Although most of these urbanisations were built between the end of the 20th century and early 21st century, so have been inhabited for many years, they were never signed off by the town hall because important specifications had not been met by the builders.
As a result these areas are still considered private so the council does not provide basic services such as maintenance.
In some cases, since the original builders could no longer be traced and forced to finish the job, residents have had to pay thousands to complete fundamental infrastructure in public areas.
Examples they gave include Las Ocas, where the streets are not surfaced and green areas not maintained; Las Mimosas, which also has roads without tarmac and lacks street lighting; Mil Palmeras, with serious problems due to lack of accessibility; and Montezenia, where residents are angry at the lack of security, neglected children’s playgrounds and areas left to become breeding grounds for vermin.
‘Inconceivably’ the town hall does not even have a list of urbanisations which it has not signed off, according to CLARO spokeswoman Helen Ackerman.
She said the fact that the town hall does not provide basic services to thousands of residents after 20 years is ‘one of the biggest deficiencies in Orihuela Costa’.
Meanwhile Javier Gracía of Cambiemos said: “We imagine that when tourists come to Orihuela Costa they feel conned if they have to stay in areas with deficient road surfacing, pavements in poor condition, parks that look like abandoned plots of land and, in general, areas where just going about daily life is made difficult.”
He claimed that these areas ‘are nothing like the photos in the tourism leaflets and posters that are handed out at tourism fairs’.
Both parties insist that it is not only urgent to change the model of intensive urban development that the coast has been subjected to for so long, but at the same time to deal with these ‘absolutely illogical situations’.
“It is urgent to force these promoters, who failed to meet their obligations when building these urbanisations, to put right the serious deficiencies that affect residents and visitors to Orihuela Costa,” they concluded.
More building
More than 60 holiday apartments are to be built in Las Filipinas.
The council board agreed in its weekly meeting to issue the building licences for four apartment blocks.
The apartments will stand in a plot known as PERI Las Filipinas. The council has given the go-ahead for hundreds of new homes in Orihuela Costa already this year.