€130 Million in the Bank… Yet Residents Ask: Where Are the Results?
There comes a point when residents stop judging a council by its promises and start judging it by its performance.
For many people living in Orihuela Costa and increasingly in the surrounding pedanías, that point has already been reached.
According to the latest official figures published on 31 December 2024, Orihuela Town Hall had more than €130 million in its bank accounts.
That is an extraordinary amount of public money.
Yet the question residents continue asking is remarkably simple:
If there is so much money available, why are basic public services still falling short?
Money sitting in a bank account does not repair roads.
It does not remove weeds.
It does not collect rubbish.
It does not repair pavements.
It does not improve beaches.
It does not deliver the public services taxpayers expect.
Public money exists to serve the public.
Instead, many residents see deteriorating infrastructure while municipal reserves continue to grow.
The coast has become the symbol of this frustration.
Roads continue to deteriorate.
Pavements remain damaged.
Green areas are neglected.
Waste collection has repeatedly become a source of complaint.
Residents in Lomas de Cabo Roig even reached the point of purchasing their own rubbish containers because they believed the service being provided was inadequate.
That should never happen in a municipality holding reserves measured in hundreds of millions of euros.
The waste collection saga illustrates a wider problem.
Former Councillor Dámaso Aparicio was responsible for the waste department during a period that many residents remember for overflowing bins, inconsistent collections and mounting public frustration.
He later became manager of the municipal waste company with a reported salary of around €80,000 per year.
Whether people agree or disagree with those appointments, residents are entitled to ask whether performance and accountability are being measured by outcomes.
The latest commentary from journalist Tomás Moreno highlights another concern.
He points out that responsibility for waste collection appears to be spread across several different bodies, including ILDO, Street Cleaning and Infrastructure.
When responsibility becomes fragmented, accountability can become equally fragmented.
And when nobody appears clearly responsible, residents are left wondering who should answer when services fail.
This is not simply a coastal issue anymore.
Increasingly, residents in the pedanías are also speaking out.
Their concerns are familiar.
Delayed maintenance.
Poor infrastructure.
Services that fail to match the taxes people pay.
The frustration is spreading beyond Orihuela Costa because many communities feel they are experiencing the same pattern.
There is an old political phrase attributed to former minister Pío Cabanillas:
”¡Cuerpo a tierra, que vienen los nuestros!”
“Hit the ground, our own people are coming!”
It was a humorous but cutting observation that sometimes the greatest problems come not from political opponents, but from your own side.
Looking back over successive administrations, whether the PP–Ciudadanos coalition or the current PP–Vox coalition, residents have witnessed disagreements, public disputes and political instability.
Meanwhile, the everyday issues affecting residents have not disappeared.
People are less interested in political arguments than they are in seeing potholes repaired, streets cleaned, beaches maintained and projects delivered on time.
That is what local government exists to do.
No council should be judged simply by the size of its bank balance.
It should be judged by what that money achieves.
A healthy financial reserve is sensible.
But allowing reserves to grow while essential services decline is not a sign of success.
It is a sign that priorities are being questioned.
Residents are not asking for miracles.
They are asking for competent management.
They are asking for transparency.
They are asking for accountability.
Above all, they are asking for value for the taxes they pay.
Because a Town Hall is not a savings account.
It is a public service.
And if more than €130 million can sit in the bank while residents continue asking where the services have gone, then perhaps the most important question of all is no longer “How much money do we have?”
It is:
“Why aren’t residents seeing the benefit of it?”
“What we have now and had in the past is a Nefarious town hall who is so Indifferent to the Needs, Wishes and rights to those not only living on the Coast but other Pedanias are
beginning to speak up.
WE ARE NEITHER LEFT NOR RIGHT.
WE ARE THE ONES WHO PAY.
AND WE DESERVE BETTER.
