Not only are the general public left in total confusion about the plans to build on Cala Mosca but it now seems that the local government are also in some turmoil.
First the Mayor and councillors representing the Partido Popular abstained from the vote to include the approval of the controversial Cala La Mosca urban plan on the Plenary agenda next Thursday, saying that they did not support José Aix, and then Aix and his Ciudadanos colleagues themselves also did a complete u-turn in abstaining on the same vote, saying that the project, with the abstention of Vox and the rejection of the PSOE and Cambiemos, can only be approved if it has the participation of the two parties of the coalition government.
So, it seems that there is anything but unanimity when it comes to validating the proposal. Although Ciudadanos states that it has all the reports in order, Cambiemos points out that the secretary general of the plenary session, as well as other officials, have expressed their legal doubts.
Ciudadanos says that initiative is validated with two reports from the head of Urban Planning, and on Monday, just minutes before the vote was to be taken, a further Municipal report approving the plan also appeared, however it arrived much too late to be distributed and understood by council members.
With this situation, the mayor Emilio Bascuñana (PP), who said the “the proposal was still not clear” as a generic justification for the PP position, decided not to include the item on the agenda.
The spokesman for Cambiemos said that he “has exposed the lies of the promoter and his lawyers in the Economic Sustainability Report, in which in a crude way the income was inflated and the public costs of the project underestimated; we have also warned of serious omissions on the part of the urban planning chief, who does not state in the file that just three months ago the State Attorney General’s Office took an interest in the matter. We have pointed out, among many other things, that there are too many unfavourable reports from municipal technicians.”
In a statement issued on Monday night the PSOE pointed out that “once again the discrepancies of the groups that make up the Oriolano Government have been exposed in the Planning Commission.” Socialist spokesperson Carolina Gracia said: “We could say that these situations are laughable, but it is not the case, especially when we are talking about one of the biggest urban decisions taken by this City Council which will see Cala Mosca urbanised.”
However, when contacted by the local Spanish Press, Orihuela’s ruling coalition, of the PP and Cs, refused to comment.
The doubts of the local government about what to do with a project as controversial as that of Cala La Mosca come as the residents of the Orihuela Costa prepare to show their disgust at the council’s management of the coast
On Thursday 29 July at 11am, coinciding with the ordinary plenary session in Orihuela City, on the esplanade in front of the Costa Town Hall, in Playa Flamenca, a neighborhood protest rally will take place to complain about the “serious deficiencies suffered by the residents of Orihuela Costa in basic services and in the maintenance of their precarious infrastructures ”.
The protest is promoted by the Orihuela in Action Association (AVOCA) and is joined by another ten neighborhood associations, entities and APAs from Orihuela Costa educational centres, where 30,000 residents feel they are being ignored.
