The Plenary in Orihuela has approved the notion for the Council to approach the Segura Hydrographic Confederation (CHS) to apply an exception contemplated in the Regulation of the Hydraulic Public Domain, to allow them to build a Sports City on land which is currently reserved as a floodplain.
Specifically, this clause allows municipalities with more than a third of the land located in flood-prone areas to carry out projects in areas declared as such, provided that the corrective measures dictated by the basin authority are complied with.
This was explained by the Mayor, Carolina Gracia, who recalled that “Orihuela does not have a single square metre set aside for sports land”, presumably therefore unaware of the sports facilities in the municipality, such as the sports centre on the Orihuela Costa, and many more in the city.
Carolina Gracia has detailed that 30,000 euro will be spent on a Hydrological Plan to include the study of flooding of the municipality and of the areas that are determined by the technicians and that are suitable to host the future Sports City.
On the other hand, the Special Plan will define the necessary metres of land, as well as the characteristics of the plots so that the City Council can acquire them to locate the sports facilities. “We have created the opportunity so that, within two or three years, Orihuela can commission the real project for Ciudad Deportiva, tender it and build it”, said the Mayor.
In this sense, Carolina Gracia has insisted that “there is no need for a budget now” to undertake the construction of the Sports City. “Without today’s procedure, there would never be a Sports City, even if we had 50 million euro to invest today,” she added. “I am happy to generate a real opportunity so that there can be a Sports City in Orihuela.
For his part, the deputy mayor, José Aix, added that the point approved today allows the City Council “to align itself with the CHS in order to begin the process of what will be the Ciudad Deportiva in the future, so claimed for so many years.” “These are facilities that have always been the subject of announcements, but empty of content”, considered Aix, who also holds the powers in Urban Planning. “We have worked for many months with the municipal technicians, we have spoken with the Generalitat and with the CHS”, recalled the deputy mayor, who explained that the Hydrological Plan and the Special Plan “will be carried out with the support of the technicians, who are who have raised their proposals and guide us to take the steps we are taking”.
Floodplains, by their very definition, are areas of land prone to flooding, which act as a protective barrier to prevent the water from reaching other occupied areas. No doubt any water which is planning to congregate on the floodplains in the future will be decent enough to relocate elsewhere.
The proposal has been approved with the votes of the socialist municipal groups, Ciudadanos, PP and Vox and the abstention of Cambiemos.
