Despite claiming that the 150 metre stretch of road running at the side of the AP7, adjacent to the IES PLAYA FLAMENCA, is private property, a gang of workers from the Ayuntamiento was out on Thursday filling in the numerous potholes that the surface has accumulated as a result of it’s previous neglect.
Attracting frequent demonstrations by members of the public, by CLARO and by the Parents Association of the Secondary School, all of whom regularly show their concern for the safety of the children, the road has seen absolutely no maintenance in years.
Since the school first opened in the 2016/17 academic year, when it attracted hundreds of additional daily users, the road has been dogged with large craters and potholes.
There are no kerbs to the road, which drops off quite alarmingly at the edges, and the situation as the children make their way to the school entrance can be quite scary with drivers of motorcycles, cars, coaches and other heavy vehicles winding their way along the road, zigzagging around the potholes, in order to avoid the many ruts and depressions and the likely damage to their vehicles.
Well finally it seems as though the council has gone at least part of the way to improving the road by filling in the holes and shoring up the edges, but although it is rather better, it is still in a sorry state.
Just about wide enough for a school bus the road is still far too narrow for vehicles to pass with the result that one, if not both of the vehicles, have to drive off the steep edge and on to the dirt.
Neither is there any pavement so it can still be quite dangerous for those who arrive and depart on foot, and with children leaving the school en masse, the road is often filled with vehicles travelling in all directions.
Residents have said on many occasions that, if it is a private plot, the council must expropriate it as a matter of urgency, and then upgrade the road and its environs to a condition where it is ‘fit for use’ so that the children of the Orihuela Costa have a safe route to and from school and they no longer have to dodge the traffic as they arrive and they leave their classes.
