Roads to nowhere complaint
THE SERVICE to maintain the pothole riddled roads of Orihuela Costa is experiencing yet more problems just 12 months after the contract was finally awarded following years of inaction by the council.
Residents association AVOCA and local political party CLARO have given scathing evaluations about the quality of the service and a dispute between the contractor and the town hall department for infrastructure.
The long-awaited contract was put out to tender in 2017 and awarded in 2019 but then the second-placed company, Zaplana Caselles appealed against the decision and ended up being awarded the service.
Following accusations the company recently made in a regional Spanish newspaper, CLARO contacted them for confirmation and were told that ‘the councillor for infrastructure
has been blocking payment for the last four months of work, despite the fact that the work has been inspected and approved by town hall technicians’.
Furthermore, among other complaints, the company claims the town hall is not supplying the necessary quantity or quality of materials for the
works, even though the contract states that the council is responsible for providing them.
CLARO suspect that the company’s work is being ‘sabotaged’ by the councillor for infrastructure, Ángel Noguera of Ciudadanos (Cs) and called the situation a ‘scandal’.
They and partners Cambiemos
have said they will denounce the situation at the next full council meeting, and asked whether the councillor may be trying to find grounds to strip Zaplana Caselles of the service so it can be given to the other company it was originally awarded to.
Sr Noguera was quoted by the Spanish press as claiming the work was not up to standard, based on his own opinion and those of Orihuela Costa town hall personnel, as well as complaints from the FAOC and AVOCA residents associations.
Nevertheless, although AVOCA admitted the quality of the work was entirely down to the company, other factors that have affected it – poor planning, lack of materials, and poor quality materials – ‘depend exclusively on the infrastructure department, and it is evident that it is not being managed well’.