The Neighborhood Association of Montezenia, on the borders of Lomas de Cabo Roig, has once again expressed its displeasure and exasperation with the Orihuela City Council for “the abandonment and discrimination that we have been suffering for years.”
Residents complain that “despite paying the same taxes as the rest of the residents in the municipality, we do not receive the same services. From the town hall we only receive promises and good words, but they are rarely translated into actions, as a result of which the urbanisation continues to suffer.”
“Motorists use our narrow roads, which are clearly identified as PRIVATE and ‘for the use of residents only’ as a short cut, when travelling between Lomas de Cabo Roig, Las Ramblas and other inland settlements, to La Zenia, the Boulevard or Playa Flamenca. They speed down our streets that are barely wider than the girth of a large car. There are few passing places and we have no paving for pedestrians, with the consequent danger that the speed and the size of the larger vehicles bring.”
But while resident of 20 years, and current community President, Nicholas Gaughan, is disappointed that he get’s little support from the town hall, he is determined to continue with his fight, in the hope that, one day, this forgotten urbanisation of just over 100 detached properties, will be formally adopted by the local authority, bringing with it the services and the facilities that are many years overdue.
“We still have no mains sewerage on the urbanisation”, he told me. “All of the properties are on septic tanks, and this despite the building work that has gone on apace on the borders of Montezenia over the last eight or ten years. We asked to be included when Lomas de Cabo Roig was being built, it would have been so easy just to incorporate us into their sewerage system, but our requests simply fell on deaf ears.”
Mr Gaughan was joined by Spanish resident José Martin, who said that his main concern was the amount of illegal fly-tipping that went on at each of the urbanisation’s four refuse points on a daily basis.
“With the enormous amount of construction that has been undertaken locally the traffic is now almost non-stop and it is increasingly bringing with it, particularly during the evening and overnight, a huge number of people who are stopping at our bins and dropping off illegal waste, not only traders and merchants, but also a large number of private individuals. Washing machines, fridges, boilers, construction materials, as well as large amounts of pruning, constantly litter our narrow roads and the bin areas that are designed for our residents, and it is totally unacceptable to us all.”
Well it would now appear that the denizens have had enough, and with little support forthcoming from the Orihuela Ayuntamiento moves are currently afoot to make the urbanisation and it’s main thoroughfare ‘ONE WAY’.
The President explained that he has the original documentation confirming that all of the roads on the urbanisation are private and unless there is a major shift of responsibility from the council, with the support of the community residents, the road will become a one way system toward the end of the year.
“We are currently distributing ballot papers to all of our residents, with a vote to be taken on the matter next month. As the majority of fly-tippers travel from inland the one-way system will operate from La Zenia in the east to Lomas de Cabo Roig in the west. We hope that this will help to resolve this intolerable situation that is just getting worse.”
He said how sad he was that “everything we propose to the City Council is either deferred or forgotten. We have many promises but none are fulfilled, even though the only thing we ask for is the same treatment and the same services as residents across the rest of the municipality.”
Main image: Community President, Nicholas Gaughan (yellow shirt) with local resident José Martin.
