The mayor of Orihuela, Pepe Vegara, and his deputy, Manuel Mestre, appeared before the media on Thursday to take stock of the first fifteen days of government.
Vegara explained that he has commissioned an audit in each council department to establish it’s state and, as he expected “we have found a City Council worse than we expected so we are working tirelessly to address, all the problems that need an urgent solution”.
In the area of Education, the mayor made reference to the summer school that “was tendered late, so that it cannot be put into operation until August.”
Regarding the building of the third school on the coast, Vegara said that when he came to the government no plot had been chosen for its construction. “The government team has since confirmed that it will be built on a plot behind the Los Dolses Shopping Centre. At this time, we are working hard so that classes can start, at the latest, in October”.
He also referred to the situation in which the workers at the Early Care Centre and the La Murada Infant School found themselves, to whom salaries and extraordinary payments were still owed. He has urgently summoned the Board of Directors of Uryula to regularize the financial situation and, initially, pay the June payroll and the extraordinary payments.
He said that an urgent solution is being sought for the management of the maintenance of green areas in districts before speaking of the dismantling of the old tourist office. In addition, “the work del Palacio de Rubalcava has major problems as the prices necessary to continue working had not been agreed with the construction company”.
Along with this, the redevelopment works in the historic centre have not started, even with the specifications and all the documentation prepared, a situation that also occurs with the works of the Plaza de la Salud, for which the projects have still not been drawn up.
He referred the future Sports City which is still just a project with the site to be selected and a number of reports yet to be completed.
Vegara also announced that the 2023 budgets are being prepared along with those for next year in order to approve them as soon as possible.
The deputy mayor and councillor for the Coast, Manuel Mestre, took over the floor stating that, of the five most important contracts relevant to the Orihuela Costa, all of them “had expired or were in a bad situation”, due to what has described as the “administrative chaos” on the coast.
He stressed that “there are many things that must be done urgently” one of which has been to update the budget management of the rescue service on Oriolan beaches. “We did not have a large enough budget and, with the help of the controller and other areas, we have been able to reach the budgeted amount so that the service will continue to function throughout the entire campaign.”
He then made reference to the contract for the beach bars, which is pending bidding after the validity of the previous contract expired. “There is currently no way to manage a new award of the beach bars”, Mestre pointed out, while adding that “an emergency solution is being sought, which could see the installation of “food trucks” or bars on some beaches”.
He confirmed that the public toilets on the beaches will come into operation as soon as possible. This service was provided by the company that was operating the beach bars, so that this year they had not been available because that service was not in operation.
“The toilets are going to be received today, Thursday, and the cleaning service is now being processed,” he explained.
In addition, he added that “we have slightly different projects for next season, such as distributing the contract for the beach bars among several bidders to make the award easier.”
Finally, he has indicated that he has met with several Orihuela Costa neighborhood associations: “They have spoken of their problems to me in detail. I have even toured the streets with them looking at the problems in many of the neighbourhoods. Some issues can be dealt with quickly and others will take longer, but we will do our best to accommodate your needs because they are all very valid requests.”
