The new Infant and Primary School Number 20, Dehesa de Campoamor de Orihuela, was scheduled to be ready to open in prefabricated classrooms, ready for the new school year, on 11 September, but now, with the building plot changed on four different occasions, the mayor Pepe Vegara (PP), has had to admit that it will not be ready until the beginning of 2024.
The decision to build a new centre, that will cater for the enormous school demand of Orihuela Costa was agreed on December 14, 2022 by the Generalitat, but the Orihuela City Council, neither the previous government nor the present one, has been able to allocate a municipal plot. It has now changed the criteria, and the proposed location, on four different occasions.
In April the Ministry of Education awarded the assembly, rental and disassembly of the prefabricated classrooms to Alquileres Barceló Sáez SL for 1.2 million euros. Designed as a single-story construction, with a capacity for 380 infant and junior students, classrooms, a dining room, patio and common facilities, it had a construction period of two months.
It could be ready, we were told, in plenty of time to ensure it’s opening for the new school year on 11 September, with the facilities remaining until the construction of a new school in a further three academic years.
The original plot on Calle Nispero, in the Los Dolses urbanisation, was considered inappropriate due to its slope, this despite the fact that the Colegio Playas de Orihuela had been sited on that very plot for 16 years, until 2018.
Faced with this rejection, the PSOE-Cs government proposed a new location in the parking lot of the La Zenia Boulevard Shopping Centre, with the easy provision of services and very well connected. However, this was discarded because the remaining area could not provide the minimum amount of parking required by the General Plan for that area.
A plot across the road in Calle Madreperla was the next to be selected. It was only necessary to process an asphalting contract to get the plot ready, however, at the beginning of the current term, the newly elected PP-Vox government team changed its mind again. The Councilor for Education, Vicente Pina, and the Councilor for Urban Planning, Matías Ruiz, insisted that the only sensible location was the plot originally selected on Calle Níspero.
Unfortunately, though, the chosen plot is already in use and will require a substantial amount of work just to get it ready.
The plot has a perimeter fence that is in very poor condition, there is still talk about levelling the slope, and that same contract must also contemplate the removal of tons of rubble, scrap equipment and all kinds of furniture that the area has accumulated, without any type of control since the Playas de Orihuela was dismantled five years ago.
With the build contract allocated just 1.2 million euros, and the newly chosen plot in an extremely unfortunate state, it seems that the amount will have to be considerably improved if the school is to be built any time soon.
Despite the need for urgent expansion to accommodate the additional influx of children requiring junior and primary education on the coast, the Orihuela City Council has still not prepared or approved the report for the project, the document necessary for the Generalitat to finance the new school , while the municipality continues with the drafting of the project and the award of the works.
