Pepe Vegara, mayor of Orihuela, was reminded of his failings in no uncertain terms recently, when the president of the Cabo Roig and Lomas Residents’ Association took him to task for not keeping his electoral promises to the coast.
Local residents attended the ordinary plenary session at the Palace of the Marquis of Arneva to support Tomas Moreno as he listed, one-by-one, the most relevant problems affecting those living in Orihuela Costa. The association is the most representative of the Orihuela coastline with 700 members, and its president was quick to point out how let down and disappointed Orihuela Costa residents are at the lack of improvements and the governments failure to meet its promises. Moreno asked the mayor what he planned to do to provide immediate solutions and demanded he put an end to the frustrations of the local community.
Moreno recounted a residents association meeting held in 2023, attended by the now mayor, where “he showed us his desire to transform the reality of Orihuela Costa and told us that he was counting on the enthusiasm of the neighbourhood to do so.” He said that meting now felt very far away and stressed that trust is the key to human relations and after a year of Vegara’s government “that trust has been broken, due to the manifest failure to keep his word.”
“A year has passed, Mr. Mayor. You looked into the eyes of all the coastal residents of Orihuela and promised us solutions and attention. And you, Mr. Mayor, have broken the trust that was placed in your party and your proposals, with improper performance and with undesirable consequences,” he said as he addressed the plenary meeting.
The main bones of contention are street cleaning and waste collection. In a recent post on Face Book the Cabo Roig and Lomas Residents’ Association said: “Many of our streets will remain unclean all summer as the necessary machinery (sweepers, blowers, pressure washers, sweeping trolleys, etc.) has not been purchased to provide a planned service in each and every one of the coastal neighbourhoods, together with the essential workforce.
“The bins and lorries announced in September last year have not been purchased, so waste collection failures (especially organic waste) are becoming more frequent and will increase over the next few weeks as the population increases. At the moment, we estimate that Orihuela Costa needs some 800 new side-loading (grey) containers and several collection lorries, to provide a minimally decent service to its residents.”
Long list
However, the list of deficiencies did not stop there, Moreno said that parks and children’s areas should have a “decent appearance and not the neglect that they currently show” and that the innumerable and serious accessibility problems that make life impossible for any person with a disability or mobility problems should be resolved. Schools were also a key feature and ‘decent’ schools for children on the coast were demanded. The coast has one high school and two infant and primary schools – all of which are saturated and work on a third school has been delayed once again.
He went on to point out deficiencies in health provision and emergency services. He explained how residents do not want to be crowded into a small health centre with practically no services – a health centre for 30,000 registered residents. And how a fire service is still not permanently housed at the Emergency Services Centre in La Zenia.
Tomas Moreno called for these basic issues to be resolved and pointed out that the fact they are not must also be attributed to a Department of Coast and Beaches, which has not managed to rise to the challenge of recovering the basic services and infrastructure of Orihuela Costa.