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Tues 6th - Mon 12th September 2016
Claro proposals for Orihuela 2017 budget
public hearing took place in the Playa Flamenca office of the Town Hall recently, attended by the Mayor of Orihuela, the Budget Councillor and several other councillors including the Councillor for the Coordination of the Coast. The hearing offered the opportunity for coastal residents to make proposals for next year’s municipal budget. There was a good attendance and participation from
political parties, the Federation of Associations of Orihuela Costa and a number of individual residents. On behalf of CLARO, Bob Houliston presented a 10-page document covering a wide range of subjects and containing 18 specific proposals. Bob Houliston said the party welcomed the opportunity for residents of Orihuela Costa to make proposals for next year’s budget as the area has more than 30,000 registered residents, equal to Orihuela city, and some 50,000 rate paying property owners accounted for 60 percent of the revenues of the municipality but received less than 10 percent of the value of municipal services. The prospects for next year’s budget are expected to show a €10 million
increase in the income of the municipality compared to the present budget approved in 20012, mainly due to an expanding coastal population and a revival of construction in Orihuela Costa with the corresponding increase in municipal revenue from building taxes. Moreover, according to reports, there would be some €10 million available for investments, principally revenue from the sale of land in Orihuela Costa some years ago. There had been general political consensus that 40 percent of the proceeds from the sale of land would be devoted to investments in Orihuela Costa. The 2017 budget would therefore be an opportunity, Bob Houliston said, to begin to redress the historical deficit of services and investment in Orihuela Costa.
The proposals contained in the document presented to the Mayor covered 6 main areas. Infrastructure, street maintenance, street cleaning and rubbish removal Finance the so-called “via paralela” a long standing project to complete an internal road, parallel to the N332, extending from La Regia to Los Balcones. This project is urgently needed to reduce congestion on the N332 aggravated by the opening of La Zenia Boulevard Commercial Centre. Two pedestrian footbridges are also urgently needed: one over the motorway between La Regia and Lomos de Cabo Roig where pedestrians are obliged to use an increasingly busy road bridge which exposes them to serious danger and in
Alameda del Mar where pedestrians from highly populated urbanisations risk their lives crossing the N332 to go to the beach. Finally, the notorious problem of deficient street cleaning and rubbish removal has to be tackled with greatly increased financial and material resources. An Ecopark, where green rubbish could be shredded and converted to saleable Continued on page 3
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