NOW IS THE TIME FOR CHANGE

 Together  we will change Orihuela Costa

 The Orihuela municipal election on 22 May is the occasion for the people of Orihuela Costa to make a real change, to improve the condition of the area and to start investing in people. It is also the occasion to remove from power the Popular Party which has been in government for over 25 years and under its present leader, Monica Lorente, has provided a corrupt, wasteful and inefficient government.

Orihuela Costa has paid a heavy price for the Popular Party’s monopoly of power. Residents have been left with inadequate infrastructure, insufficient services and a spoiled environment dominated by wastelands. There are no proper parks or gardens and streets and commercial centres are in a bad condition and are not kept clean. This has got to change.

The electoral alliance between the Centro Liberal Renovador (CLR) and CLARO parties offers an alternative form of government for Orihuela Costa: honest, transparent, efficient and close to the people. We are a coalition of like-minded, non-idealogical, qualifed and pragmatic people dedicated to serving the interests of Orihuela and Orihuela Costa. All our candidates earn their living outside politics and have entered politics to serve the interests of the people and NOT for personal gain.

We aim to integrate Orihuela Costa, the pedanias and Orihuela city as a whole.  For too long Orihuela Costa, with more than 30,000 residents, one third of the total population, has been neglected, ignored and unrepresented, and we have no directly elected councillors in the present Town Hall. Our residents must be directly represented by democratically elected councillors from Orihuela Costa.

We strongly believe in the need to be linked to Orihuela with a direct road and efficient and reliable public transport. Due to the distance between the coast and the city, we need to be de-centralise our local government with a greatly increased number of services administered in the Playa Flamenca office of the Town Hall with a more customer-friendly and multi-lingual staff. We will make sure that several elected councillors, who are fluent in English and German, work in the Town Hall of Orihuela Costa to serve our residents adequately. At present there is just one PP councillor which is not sufficient for a third of the total population. To increase the sense of participation of residents of Orihuela Costa in the new politics of integration CLR – CLARO will hold at least two meetings of the Plenary of the Town Council each year in Orihuela Costa.

CLR-CLARO will economise, cut out waste and put the finances in order. The PP has over-spent, over borrowed and left the finances of Orihuela in a disastrous state. CLR-CLARO will provide a proper and proportionate share of the budget for Orihuela Costa to be used to provide the necessary services instead of the money we pay as taxes being wasted on unnecessary non public issues.   Salaries of councillors and personal consultants will be reduced by 30%. 

Given the size of the resident population, which can reach over 350,000 during peak tourist times, we will increase the number of police by 30 new officers and we will make sure that residents have a modern police station which is open 24 hours a day.

In recent years, the urbanisations of ENTRE NARANJOS and LAGUNA GREEN have grown into substantial communities with a mainly non-Spanish population. They are in the same electoral district as Orihuela Costa and they suffer similar problems to those of Orihuela Costa. CLR-CLARO will resolve the infrastructure problem by providing the planned sewage treatment plant. We will increase basic public services and will ensure that residents have public transport and a local medical centre, so they do not have to travel several kilometres to the centre in Torremendo. CLR-CLARO will take up the needs and deficiences of Entre Naranjos and Laguna Green with the same enthusiastic and firm commitment as in Orihuela, the pedanias and Orihuela Costa and will make sure that a democratically elected councillor fluent in English and German is available to the residents twice a week. The CLR-CLARO Election Manifesto is based on the above principles and objectives, and takes into account specific suggestions given by residents, Presidents of communities and urbanisation representatives, parents and associations, young people as well as entrepreneurs and business men and women. As a result, we have a very large number of proposals which will form the basis of our government programme.   These are a selection which we present as our commitments and priorities.

 A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

.      We will transform the image of Orihuela Costa to provide a clean, green and attractive area for residents and visitors. Upgrading the image of Orihuela Costa will be essential to overcome the present economic crisis, restore property values and re-generate the local economy. This is a major priority for CLR-CLARO and will be based on the development of local businesses and enterprises. Efficient promotion of tourism will be developed to sustain the flow of visitors to our coast and inland. 

·          We will ensure that there is NO return to the uncontrolled building of the past which ignored the basic needs and we will ensure the balance between house building, infrastructure, public services and environment. A local government by CLR-CLARO will exercise a much greater supervision by the Town Hall to ensure that there are no building projects which leave people living in legal accommodation but without habitation certificates and denied access to the pardon and essential rights like health care.  

.       Upgrading the sewage system must be a priority. It is a disgrace for residents to see sewage on the streets and on the beaches which are the foundation of the tourist economy. 

           We will ensure that the ‘Padron’ (local census) and the electoral census includes all the residents in Orihuela Costa, without the manipulation for political gain. We want the total integration of the residents of Orihuela Costa in the municipality.

·         CLR-CLARO will provide social and cultural facilities in Orihuela Costa as currently they are virtually non-existent.   We will offer a public library open to all ages and nationalities, with an auditorium and theatre. This building could be multi-purpose and be used to hold concerts, exhibitions and various musical events.

·         We will open a Youth Centre and will provide more sports facilities with properly planned activities to provide the young with healthy, safe and adequate activities.

·         We will provide the new sports centre with proper changing facilities, more space for gym based exercise and a cafeteria. We will reduce the extortionate prices to enable easy access for residents an in some cases free access to certain groups (e.g. retired people) and will extend the opening times.

·         We will expand the health services with suitably located satellite health centres. One health centre in Orihuela Costa is not sufficient for a widely dispersed population of more than 30,000 people. It is also our commitment to provide more chemists in Orihuela Costa as our residents need more than three chemists and we need a proper duty chemist and emergency service.

·         CLR-CLARO is committed to provide proper parks and gardens throughout Orihuela Costa, offering a varied range of major, natural environmental attractions. We will also install healthy keep fit equipment in the parks and gardens in and around Orihuela and Orihuela Costa. The last green area with sea views, Cala Mosca, is threatened with a huge building project and should be saved as far as possible to provide an emblematic natural park for Orihuela Costa.

·         CLR-CLARO strongly believes that transformation of the environment is essential to restore the image of Orihuela Costa and to offer a better quality of life to our residents and visitors. We will not tolerate an urban landscape which is scarred by wastelands which are dumping grounds for rubble and rubbish. We will enforce the application of the law requiring owners of empty plots to fence off their land to prevent dumping. We will ensure proper cleaning for streets and commercial centres and provide concealed below ground rubbish bins for commercial centres and other prominent areas and make sure that garden rubbish is not left lying around for too long.

·         We will improve road safety to a very high standard in particular pedestrian crossings and safe crossing of the N-332 at vital points like La Regia and Cala Mosca.  We will ensure that actions are taken to remove the motorway toll of the AP-7 from the La Zenia junction, to bring to an end the expensive payments which only the residents and businesses of Orihuela Costa are suffering for this public service. Not only will CLR-CLARO          ensure safety on our roads but also on the beaches. The periods of time lifeguards are present on our beaches must be extended to an earlier start and later finish in the season. This will attract tourists to this area.

·         Security is a basic need for all. We will increase the number of local police by 30 more officers to ensure safety of people and property, provide a police station open 24 hours a day and bobbies on the beat not just in patrol cars. We will request the Ministry of the Interior to open a representation of the National Police in Orihuela Costa. The Emergency Services Centre should have been up and running years ago. We will make sure there are no more delays and that the appropriate budget is provided to ensure our residents and our visitors’ security and safety.    

·         A substantial future must provide employment for the active population living here and those who need to be attracted to live here in the future. CLR-CLARO will invest in measures to promote and activate a sustainable economical activity in Orihuela Costa. We will build an industrial incubator to support the local entrepreneurs.

·         We will ensure the completion of the beach promenade (Paseo Maritimo) between Playa Flamenca and Cabo Roig and seek to have a natural seaside walk from one end of Orihuela Costa to the other.

·         Public transport is totally inadequate and badly organised. A CLR-CLARO local government will create safe and reliable bus services between all the urbanisations of Orihuela Costa, to Orihuela city and to Alicante and San Javier airports. The rich cultural heritage of Orihuela should be more accessible to residents of Orihuela Costa and cultural exchanges between coast and city should be promoted.

·         It is of paramount importance for CLR-CLARO to offer our children in Orihuela Costa a high standard of education and the right training for their future in the best possible conditions, with adequate schools and colleges. This is essential to ensure that families will choose to live here.   The present generation of school children have spent too many years in temporary container classrooms, this must end right now.

·         CLR-CLARO will ensure that the new special needs centre for infants has the staff and facilities necessary to run such a centre on a daily basis. There will be resident therapists available to the children and not only ‘as and when necessary’.

·         We will provide an adequate and free Civic Centre for all our pensioners and retired people and the existing centre will be expanded to provide cinema, dance, educational courses (e.g. cooking, languages… ) and more space for social and leisure activities. We will also provide fitness areas (Healthy Parks) in suitable areas of our parks for elderly people to keep physically and intellectually fit in the open air.

Together  we will change Orihuela Costa

Art 19.