The PSOE is already saying that there will be no beach bars in Orihuela Costa this Easter. They say that time is beginning to get very tight and, although the PP-Vox government team insists that they are working against the clock, the issue is becoming increasingly unlikely.
This was announced by the socialists, who have had access to the file, and whose tender documentation is in the offer evaluation phase.
After studying the documentation, they state that “a total of 17 companies have submitted bids for the tender that began in November, but four were not accepted because they were out of time.
Right now the reports are being prepared for the remaining 13 bids, but the process still has a long way to go. It will be impossible for the beach bar contracts to be awarded and the bars put into operation before Palm Sunday,” says councillor María García.
The PSOE said that all local beaches are about to receive visits from thousands tourists and residents “there are only two weeks left before the Easter holidays, and according to the document itself, by that date, 6 of the 11 beach bars should already be open.” la Glea in Campoamor, Cala Capitán in Cabo Roig, Cala Cerrada in la Zenia and Cala Estaca in Playa Flamenca, in addition to Cala Bosque (la Zenia) and La Caleta (Cabo Roig), which the specifications allow to trade all year round.
But the lack of beach bars, adds García, “is worse than it appears because we do not know if they have a ‘plan B’ to at least guarantee the toilet service. Yet again we see that there is a lack of planning, and now, either they will make a new contract out of urgency or “they will be late again, this is not the way to work.”
However, according to a municipal spokesman, the toilets and walkways are guaranteed and have been processed through minor contracts.
The contracts for the beach bars has a duration of four years (until 2027) but the tenders are divided into five lots, which increases the complexity of the award.
“It is the first time that the City Council has chosen to batch contract this service, and precisely for this reason we believe that the government should have been more prudent, perhaps this procedure has caused more companies to present themselves and therefore the valuation and adjudication is becoming more complex. Some companies have only bid for one lot and others for two, with the lots receiving the most proposals being 2 and 3, which contain the beach bars in which the bars are open practically all year round,” said councillor García.
García concluded by stating that both the mayor and the councillor for beaches “must stop thinking about making announcements just to make the headlines, but which they know they cannot fulfil. It has happened with the budgets, with the beach bars and many of us fear it will happen with the Oriol works. “That is no way to operate in politics, because eventually the general public will stop believing in your words.”
