The rate will increase on the coast from 70 to 238.76 euros per annum
The fact that an increase in the waste tax was coming had been well publicised, but there was no date for it’s implementation nor was the new rate known.
Now, answers have been provided to both questions as, starting next year, Orihuela residents and owners of residences in the municipality will pay far more for their waste collection service, with everyone seeing an increase that has been more than doubled.
Until now the average was 70 euros per year per home. These figures will increase to 175.63 euros in the outlying areas and 202.53 in the city. But residents of the coast will pay the most: 238.76 euros per year. The payment, which is currently quarterly, will become half-yearly.
The proposal to update the tax, is currently with the Intervention Committee, with plans that it will be submitted to the Governing Board in the coming weeks prior to being voted on by all political groups in plenary session. The proposal, which is expected to be approved, will mean the first update in 21 years. The waste tax has been frozen since at least 2003, when José Manuel Medina was mayor.
The increase in the tax, however, is not the result of an arbitrary political decision, but it is required by law. Town councils have until April next year to update their rates.
New government legislation requires that the cost of waste disposal is now covered completely by business and homeowners and not, as has been the case in many municipalities in the past, including Orihuela and Torrevieja, subsidised by local councils. The town council must now pass on the full cost of the service to the citizen.
Currently, the current rate in Orihuela only covers 40% of the cost of the service where waste collection is particularly expensive. There is the age of the equipment, which often requires costly repairs, there is a structural problem at the regional level in that all municipalities in the Vega Baja must pay not only for collection, but also for treatment at an authorised landfill and, in addition, for transfer to that landfill. The regional Consortium does not have its own treatment plant in the region for such waste, which forces the municipalities to pay for the transfer of rubbish to points as far away as landfills located in the outskirts of the city of Valencia.
The issue of a treatment plant has been pending since the beginning of this century, when its location on land near Torremendo was proposed. At that time, the opposition by the residents saw the project rejected, but it has now been resurrected with the same location suggested again.
Orihuela Council has already publicly expressed its opposition to that location stating that it is looking for an alternative site within the municipal area. If there were a regional plant, the savings would be significant. According to the estimates provided by the council, 150 euros are currently paid per tonne for disposal and transportation to Valencia, that amount could be reduced to 70 euros.
