Despite multiple requests the urbanisation of Montezenia has still not been adopted by the Council and, fed up with the lack of support and maintenance, the residents have now decided to close the Av de la Luz, the through road between Torre Zenia and La Zenia, to all traffic other than urbanisation residents.
Montezenia will now join Las Colinas, becoming the second Orihuela Costa urbanisation with restricted access controlled by a private security company.
The streets were never formally adopted by the Orihuela Council, an issue that has long rankled with the residents of this residential area in the interior of the Oriolano coast.
They have been expressing a recurring lack of maintenance on the roads, with cracks and large potholes in the road surface that are not repaired except at the expense of the residents themselves. The streets, in general, do not even have pavements, which represents an added risk. In fact, they say, traffic accidents occur on a regular basis.
After several attempts to get the Council to assume responsibility and take effective possession of the streets, finally the inhabitants, through their property manager, have decided to take responsibility and begin to assume the maintenance costs of the roads themselves. Thus, the paradox arises that, although these people pay their taxes to the municipality, they will only receive the waste/ garbage service, as they will provide the rest of the urbanisation upkeep at their own cost.
For the Council to take charge of the maintenance of the roads, as already happened in the case of the Montepinar urbanisation, there would have to be a major investment, for example, in water channelling, as there are some roads that lack sewerage and even lighting.
Closed with a Metal Gate
The first step towards this ‘independence’ was taken this week which the Cabo Roig and Lomas Neighbourhood Association has announced on their social networks. The workers, as can be seen in the images, are erecting a gate on Avenida de la Luz, at its intersection with Calle Orihuela. Meanwhile a notice of the closure was also displayed on a wooden pallet at the La Zenia entrance to the urb.
The council has accepted that the residents are entitled to carry out this work, since, they understand, the streets are currently “private property.”
Avenida de la Luz is the main road through the urbanisation that structures the entire residential area filled with single storey chalets with swimming pools. Future access to residents will by through an electrically operated gate via a remote control. At the moment, there are already signs prohibiting entry, to all except residents, but it is clear that this has never had the anticipated deterrent effect with the vast majority of drivers using it as a shortcut between Lomas de Cabo Roig and La Zenia.
The closure of Avenida de la Luz will now mean, according to the Cabo Roig Neighbourhood Association, a problem for those hundreds of residents of the surrounding urbanizations who use this road to travel by car from La Zenia and Playa Flamenca to Lomas de Cabo Roig or Lomas or Don Juan as everyone who wants to travel to these places will be forced to make much longer detours through either Cabo Roig or Los Dolses.
