Permission has now been granted by the authorities for the residents of Lomas de Cabo Roig and neighbouring urbanisations to hold a march next Saturday morning, 31st March, to protest about the lack of government action in building the bridge over the AP7. The road connects over 5,000 people from many different communities in the Lomas area with the Orihuela Costa medical centre, bus services, beaches and the leisure areas of Campoamor and Cabo Roig.
This work has been pending with the Orihuela Municipal Council for more than 6 years, despite the fact that they hold a bank guarantee from the developer for 1,200,000 euros, which could, and should, have already been used to undertake this essential project.
Even though a Ciudadanos motion was presented to, and approved by, the Municipal Plenary in 2015, demanding the construction of a pedestrian bridge over the AP-7, the City council has still failed to carry out any action.
Numerous approaches to local councillors and to the City Planning department have all been met with empty promises, although they do seem to have no problem at all in finding the funding for superficial projects such as the refurbishment of the Orihuela Plaza de Toros, while the residents of the Orihuela Costa continue to take their life in their hands every time they walk, to the beaches, the Medical Centre or the local pharmacy.
The only route that residents and visitors can take if they wish to use these facilities is across the AP7 bridge that has no hard shoulder and is completely unlit, so those many people that do have to make the journey on foot, in wheelchairs or with their baby’s and pushchairs, risk their lives, and those of anyone who might be with them, every time they venture out.
Since the beginning of this legislature the residents and associations of Orihuela Costa have made it quite clear to the city council that this is one of the single-most important projects essential to the area. They have submitted numerous requests in writing as well as canvassing three different Town Planning Councillors.
The subject has also been raised in the Municipal Plenary, it has been extensively publicised in the regional and the local media, on social networks and the construction has also been requested through the participatory budgets in 2017 and 2018. Despite all this effort, to this day, the City of Orihuela council and it’s mayor, Emilio Bascuñana, continue to ignore this crucial neighbourhood demand.
According to municipal planning guidelines “the carriageway over the AP7 should have a 15 metre-wide road as well as two pavements, one on either side of the road, and each two and a half metres wide.
At the moment there is absolutely nothing of the like so this is a work of vital importance to eliminate the serious risk of pedestrians being run over by one of the numerous vehicles, many of them heavy, that circulate on the road, which is currently increasingly busy in an area of the coast in which there is incessant construction.
It is not understood just why the Council has not been able to give any indication of the work being carried out.
Residents say that they are absolutely disgusted by the municipal neglect, and if there are any accidents they will hold the mayor and his city council completely responsible.
The Association of Cabo Roig and Lomas residents, together with the other member associations of the Federation of Associations of Orihuela Costa (F.A.O.C.), will thereby be organising a protest next Saturday, 31 March, starting at the new BP Garage at 10am.
They intend to march to the roundabout by the Pharmacia in Cabo Roig and would encourage all residents of the Orihuela Costa to join with them in showing their disgust at the municipal inaction with regard to the construction of this essential project.
