Residents living along Orihuela Costa will be all too aware that the construction industry is seeing a re-emergence, with large building sites springing up on vacant land across the region.
Some of these projects are very large and of high density, so it is reasonable to suggest that the resident population of the coast will increase if these properties are successfully sold.
I seriously question whether the planning authority based 35 kilometres away in Orihuela, have really analysed the consequences of such an increase in residents living on the Costa. Simple calculations demonstrate that any upturn in the Orihuela Costa population will put additional strains on the already inadequate infrastructure and the very limited council services available on the coast.
Take, for example, the effects of 30 additional families with school-age children. Just 35 additional children would require one extra classroom and schoolteacher. Where would you accommodate the additional classrooms? Already primary schools are so overcrowded that most of the school children are forced to be taught in substandard conditions. Valuable rooms are turned into additional classrooms, teacher’s rooms, libraries, computer rooms, etc.
A new temporary structure is being erected in Los Dolses – portacabins – until the new brick-built school is ready, many years down the line. Simple mathematics determine the number of additional classrooms required if more families choose to make Orihuela Costa there home. So what Orihuela needs to be doing now is planning a 4th or even a 5th school, not simply waiting for a problem to arrive, however, planning ahead is not their strongest suit in Orihuela.
Looking at the other end of the age spectrum, what effects would an increase in retired residents have? Well, it is a well-known fact that there are virtually no services for older people on Orihuela Costa.
The huge influx of retired residents who moved here during the late 1990s are ageing, and, with time, they will become increasingly immobile and dependent. They will require care services, day care and even residential care, all services that are conspicuous by their absence on the coast.
Many people will die here and require burial but they will be unable to be interred in the municipality they lived in as there is no cemetery on the Costa and there are absolutely no plans or intentions by the Orihuela-based councillors to provide one!.
When they emigrated to Spain the majority of retirees residing on Orihuela Costa had every intention of becoming permanent residents. The majority have no second home in their country of origin, they sold up and made, what they believed, to be a total commitment to live out their remaining days in Spain.
Consequently, there is a desperate need to provide essential services for the older population already living here and this need will be magnified many times over as the number of older people increases.
It is totally irresponsible that the Orihuela-based planning authority give permission to constructors to build thousands of additional homes, yet fail in their obligation to plan, provide and finance the services that people require in the surrounding areas.
As long as Orihuela Costa fails to have adequate political representation on the council the area will continue to see even more construction without a conscience.
We are governed by a failed government, great with words but without any intention to deliver
