More than seven years ago, a handful of courageous residents – most of them from Lomas de Cabo Roig – fed up with the lack of basic services, founded a modest association called the Cabo Roig and Lomas Neighbourhood Association.
In the early years, six to eight members usually attended the meetings. At the last meeting, held on 14 November, more than 60 people attended and many others were represented. This is a good example of how much the association has grown since it was founded.
I joined the association five years ago and have been its president for the last two years, as decided by our members. I am truly proud of this!
During my initial period, I worked closely with Liam A. Kiley, who was president for three years, a young Spanish/Welsh man who was highly educated and a leading figure on the coast, especially among residents of British descent.
The last two years have been exciting for me, as, with the excellent collaboration of the vice-president, Eliseo Sastre, and the other members of the board of directors, the association has taken a step forward in demanding decent services. We have done this, basically, by asking questions at municipal plenary sessions, requesting action at the District X and XI meetings on the coast, and taking our complaints to social media and the press. The INFORMACIÓN newspaper has been the mouthpiece for the coast's demands on many occasions!
Our Facebook page has collected its own content on interesting topics such as segregation; the formation of a political party; Orihuela Costa's contribution to municipal coffers and its return in services and infrastructure (with an annual deficit of €15 million); and the complaint about an unfair, abusive and illegal rubbish collection tax, as it does not meet the criterion that those who pollute more should pay more.
These years spent in the association have been a very rewarding experience for me on a personal level because they have allowed me to strengthen relationships with our members, with the residents of the coast and with some members of the government team – starting with the mayor – and the opposition of the Orihuela Corporation.
What has happened over the last five years in the association?
Among our achievements, I don't think it's presumptuous to say that we have positioned the association as a benchmark for neighbourhood advocacy on the Orihuela coast, which is why we have seen a flood of new members, reaching more than a thousand today.
This has been made possible mainly thanks to our Facebook page, which currently has almost 12,000 followers. It is a gateway for members and a meeting place for residents, where they can freely express their opinions on the services and infrastructure of the coast.
On this page, the association has tried to provide serious and truthful information, always building its narrative around objective, researched and verified data. I believe that this way of working is what has helped us to attract the huge social following we now have.
I get the impression that residents have ‘taken refuge’ in the association to try to alleviate the shortcomings they suffer from municipal services that are, unfortunately, deficient. Some of these shortcomings – unfortunately few – have been resolved, but the vast majority have not, and are even getting worse every day: street cleaning, waste collection, maintenance of roads, parks and playgrounds, beaches, schools, boulevards, etc.
I believe that this situation is due, in part, to the complexity of providing public services in a huge municipality (365 square kilometres, the largest in the province of Alicante) that is very scattered (28 population centres, including the town centre, the coast and the 26 districts).
However, on the other hand, I share the widely held opinion among residents that the government team has major flaws in its composition (the coast and street cleaning and MSW, for example), which seriously hamper its performance. The mayor is obviously responsible for this situation, demonstrating that he may not be fit for office!
As I had the opportunity to tell the mayor personally a few months ago, the ‘virtual’ reality provided by his councillors and advisers contrasts sharply with what is really happening on the coast and, probably, throughout the municipality.
I believe the mayor would change his mind if he set foot on our beaches or some of our roads; if he visited some neighbourhoods, such as La Zenia (on the coast), which are in a state of serious disrepair; if he saw the condition of most of our waste containers; or if he visited the completely neglected gardens and children's play areas. That is the reality of the coast, not the one they show him!
As for the Councillor for the Coast, Manuel Mestre, we will remember him for his ‘masterpieces’ and his unwillingness to engage in dialogue. He can't get anything right, as the repair of the railings at Playa Flamenca and La Zenia, reusing bars with 20 years of rust, is an affront to common sense. And he is jointly responsible for the ‘Observatory’ designed by his Vox colleague, which has cost us €50,000 out of our own pockets, to carry out a charade in which citizens give the management a barely passing grade, something that does not correspond to reality. We are faced with the most useless Coastal Council ever, and what is worse, it is fuelling the desire for independence among residents!
What is the current situation of the coast and its outlook between now and the May 2027 elections?
I have no qualms about publicly acknowledging that this government has been making significant improvements over the last year, such as the renewal of waste containers and collection lorries, the resurfacing of some of our streets, the forthcoming renovation of public lighting and children's play areas, the much-demanded opening of the promenade and a few other ongoing projects.
However, these improvements must be assessed in relation to their real impact on the actual needs to be met today on the coast. And the resulting figures represent a stubbornly short-sighted reality.
Only a third of the bins have been replaced. Only about twenty of the 700 roads have been resurfaced.
Only 9 of the 70 children's play areas (12%) are going to be repaired. Only 200 street lamps (20%) of the public lighting will be replaced. Only a third of the fleet of lorries used for street cleaning and waste collection has been replaced.
And when it comes to festivities, we also fare very badly, as for every euro spent on the coast - basically on Christmas and Halloween celebrations - at least 5 euros are invested in the city. And that's without considering the enormous amount of resources allocated to subsidising the big celebrations of Moors and Christians and Holy Week. I see no political will in the Orihuela government to give the coast the attention it deserves!
We will have the perfect storm if, on top of all this, we add that, of the almost €13 million in investments approved in the 2024 budget, a year later - and with less than two years to go until the end of the term of office - only 12% of the projects have been carried out, amounting to just over €1.5 million, mainly the €1 million asphalting operation recently completed.
Among the projects for which there is still no indication of when they will be operational, we would highlight some that are particularly important for residents, such as the pedestrian bridge over the AP-7 motorway (Lomas de Cabo Roig), which I do not know if there will be time to inaugurate before the next elections; or the cultural centre and auditorium, which the coast has been demanding for so many years and for which we have yet to see the first stone laid.
Nor does the recovery of street cleaning and waste collection services by the new ad-hoc municipal company look promising at the moment, instead of outsourcing them as is the case in most municipalities in Spain. The right wing in the municipal government (PP/Vox) is municipalising services, a traditional recipe of left-wing governments in our country!
Looking ahead, Orihuela Costa needs autonomy, with a Coastal Council that is the polar opposite of the current one: with powers that bring the basic councils (Infrastructure, Urban Planning, Street Cleaning and MSW) closer to the coast, with an adequate specific budget and a much better management team than the current one.
And to all this, in my opinion, we must add the urgent need to implement a Comprehensive Recovery Plan for the Municipality, with a budget of many millions, so that, within eight years, municipal services and infrastructure can be restored for the citizens.
