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Orihuela Town Hall - Failings

Hi Joe.

I read with interest your letter, and with respect you are Partially correct This current coalition has only been going since May last year, but the coalition partner, Ciudadanos have been in Orihuela government coalition since 2015, and Jose Aix as deputy mayor since 2019.

So C’s have to take a large portion of the blame for the state of Orihuela Costa. Also from 2015 they have held a number of the key positions, including councillor for infrastructure and councillor for the beaches.

Regards Zachary

PIOC

Partido Independencia Orihuela Costa

Tackyvieja

In terms of neglected open areas, approach roads and its urbanisations, Torrevieja increasingly resembles an impoverished Third World country.

If first impressions count - and they do – I predict a British red-top tabloid will soon publish embarrassing images of our weed-strewn calle and communities under the headline Tackyvieja.

What then? Fewer quality restaurants, stores and high-spending tourists. Wealthier residents, home-buyers and their visitors will instead be lost to ‘house proud’ image-conscious rival cities notable by their carefully manicured approach roads and public access areas. We regularly visit friends in Marbella, Puerta Banus and Sotogrande where approach roads and communities are well cared for. What a contrast.

Cordially,

Eco Car Stickers

Can you help?

Mícheál Walsh.

The N332’s expert Mark Nolan wrote: Dear

Mrs Reeves,

We will break down the elements of your question, and hopefully things will then become clearer.

Firstly, your figure of 70% of cars not qualifying for stickers is grossly exaggerated. The official estimate is that 33% of vehicles will not be eligible. But different sources report different figures depending on how much they want to “hype”, as you correctly put it, the situation.

long as you observe the signs, there will not be a problem for anybody.

Of course, mapping applications also indicate this, and they will no doubt be updated, once the municipalities actually get around to complying with their legal obligations, most likely after the elections.

What is different is that the law which entered into force this year is for municipalities of more than 50,000 residents, of which there are little more than a handful in our area, and in those municipalities, the areas in question are relatively small.

There has been so much hype about the car Eco stickers but I can’t find out any information from anywhere as to what you are supposed to do if you aren’t allowed in the cities. Given that probably 70% of cars in Spain won’t qualify for any band of sticker Is there any infrastructure set up as to where these cars can park in each region to then use public transport to access the cities. (Park and ride etc) seems like nothing is in place prior to these rules being implemented as usual.

Regards

L Reeves Mrs

In terms of hype, you also have to be aware that his is not a new system and has been operational in some Spanish cities for many years. In Madrid, for example, they were introduced in 2018. But even the much smaller city of Pontevedra had created an effective Low Emissions Zone even before that. That said, restricting roads goes back even further than that. The No Entry sign for example was first introduced in the UK in 1965. There are other signs restricting traffic, such as No Motor Vehicles, or those that restrict certain vehicles based on the time of day, so the concept of road closures and restrictions dates back decades.

Hardly anybody will check which roads are No Entry or restricted before a journey, because that´s what road signs are for, so, as

Advice: Generally Speaking, Cars are NOTSubmarines

Acurious picture was shared on Instagram this week by the user sergionovaocio from the Navantia naval shipyard in Cartagena.

In the picture, you can clearly see the tail of a submarine, a vessel for which Navantia are famous, and a boat, which is of course normally found underwater, hence the name, submarine. However, slightly further back from the actual submarine is another vehicle seemingly wondering what life is like under the ocean waves, but this particular, and much smaller craft is a Nissan Pixo, a car, which is normally best suited to life on the road.

The post does report that the car entering the water was in fact accidental, although ëa la submarineí, it too found its way to the bottom of the dock in just a matter of minutes.

Park and Ride does already exist in many cities. The smaller municipalities not so much, but because we are talking, at worse, about maybe a couple of streets, it is unlikely that it would be necessary as the most you would have to walk would be a block or two. The matter of integrated public transport is a different matter altogether, due to the fragmented operation of the concept of municipal management, and this also means that neither we, in fact nobody, can comment on each of the 141 municipalities in Alicante alone, but again, we must stress, the Low Emissions Zones will only affect a handful of those. We hope this information calms your concerns. Just look for the signs, as normal, and you will be fine.