- PRESS RELEASE
The two political parties, Cambiemos Orihuela and C.L.A.R.O., are to make proposals to reopen the Orihuela Costa Municipal Sports Centre, to change the form of management and reduce prices to affordable levels with discounts for those on the padron and for vulnerable groups.
The two parties which have just announced that they will join forces to contest the forthcoming municipal elections in a Coalition, are combining to save the recently closed Orihuela Costa Municipal Sports Centre.
For some time, Cambiemos councillor Carlos Bernabeu, has criticised the privatisation of the Centre which has resulted in the highest prices in the area and transferring public money into the private company which has been running the Centre. The company has not been respecting the contract and the resulting financial damage to the municipality could reach a total of €700,000.
His party has denounced the contract to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor. He has also emphasised the need to look after those employed in the Centre who have not been paid for some time.
Helen Akerman, President of C.L.A.R.O., has stated that the closure of the Municipal Sports Centre is the latest and most tangible demonstration of the lack of interest by the present coalition government in making good the deficient services from which Orihuela Costa residents are suffering.
The Ciudadanos Party, which has principal responsibility for the affairs of the coast, must shoulder most of the blame for this situation. The contract for managing the Sports Centre was terminated by the government last July but unsuccessfully and the procedure has had to be restarted.
As a consequence more than 500 people, young as well as retired, are without sports facilities and some 250 school children who continue their training in the evenings often do so in the dark without light or water. It is urgent she said, to put an end to the discrimination from which the coast suffers.
The two parties have submitted a Motion for consideration in the next Plenary meeting of the Town Council, the last before municipal elections in May, the main points of which are to urge the government to accelerate the reopening of the Centre, to require a report into the transfer of management of the Centre from the private sector to the public and to reduce prices to make the Centre more accessible and to offer discounts to users who are on the municipal padron or belong to vulnerable groups.
