After Orihuela Costa ended the summer without beach bars, other than political sound bites from the mayor of the councillor for the coast, little or nothing is known about the new contract expected to be introduced next year.
From the little that has been revealed, it is known that the decision of the current government is that the service will be divided into lots, five in total, four for beach bars and one for water sports.
The intention of the Coastal Department is that the beach bars tender document is presented in a way that is most attractive to potential contractors, presumably that will be by profitability, as not all the sandy areas on the Oriola coast generate the same level of turnover, but of course what they don’t want is that any of the lots fail to attract a bid.
So, while the sandy beaches of La Caleta de Cabo Roig, La Zenia beach (Cala Bosque) and Cala Capitán are the most sought after, others like Punta Prima are considered to be less attractive.
Furthermore, in the previous contract, the beach bars in Cabo Roig and La Zenia remained open all year round. This was because they are the most appreciated sandy areas with calm waters as well as for their high activity, where there was no shortage of Christmas and New Year’s Eve parties.
The idea of dividing the contract into lots arose in the last term, with Ciudadanos councillor Antonio Sánchez in charge of the beaches. On that occasion, it was proposed to create 11 lots. Now the authorities will seek to group ‘good’ with ‘bad’ in search of a delicate balance.
Whatever happens, the council has stated that Easter would be the ideal time to reopen the beach bars, but time is of the essence, so the council knows how important it is that the contract is published in the coming weeks.
