Fifty million euros. This is the investment that Orihuela Costa needs to rectify the infrastructure, maintenance and service problems that it has suffered for decades. The investment was called for by the Deputy Mayor, the councillor for the coast and the leader of Orihuela’s Vox party, Manuel Mestre.
“If I had 50 million euros to invest in Orihuela Costa this year, we would solve 80% of the problems facing the coast,” he said. The figure, he added, comes from the studies prepared by his Department since his appointment on 18 June, information that is contained in a Master Plan that he will present “soon” with the actions that need to be tackled during this legislature.
He will present this plan together with the mayor, Pepe Vegara, who is fully ‘up to speed’ with the plan. The announcement was made during Monday’s presentation of the programs that the Orihuela Council will carry out over the next three years within it’s Planifica Plan.
The first of them, which will be implemented in 2024, involves the tarmacing of around thirty roads on the coast.
Mestre took advantage of the press conference to ask the mayor to delegate to him the powers of Street Cleaning and MSW on the coast. This is something that “we have to negotiate between both parties,” said Mestre. Currently it is not possible, but, the council has already stated on several occasions that the commitment is to move to a management model through a public company. Therefore, “we will sit down to negotiate with the mayor. We would like to take the project in in the coast,” Mestre said, so that his department is in charge of all these basic services on the Orihuela Costa.
However, Mestre is aware that the figure of 50 million euros is unrealistic in the short term. It represents, in fact, 70% of the annual budget of the Orihuela City Council, although he has pointed out that “we still have four years ahead of us.” To achieve that amount would take much more than four years, which is why it has been marked as a priority action so that we can focus investments.
“Apart from the roads, to improve the flow of traffic, the issue of parks and gardens is also essential. Another very important matter is the beaches. The beaches of Orihuela Costa should be an icon when we talk about the Mediterranean coast. We are going to concentrate a large part of our resources on that because we think it is particularly important.”
In his speech, Mestre has outlined the general theme of his Master Plan that he states will be presented in the coming weeks to energize the coast.
He said that he was disappointed that the coast had suffered a summer without a chirunguitos service, which in many cases should be open throughout the year, but which still remain closed waiting for the contract, which expired last spring, to go out to tender.
He is also keen to see completion of the site to install the prefabricated classrooms of the third Orihuela Costa school which is also still pending, and which should have opened in September but for which there is still no deadline. These are just some of the many needs that the residents of Orihuela Costa have been demanding for years.
