Expat communities in Orihuela Costa neglected by town hall

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    • #57390
      Anonymous
      Participant

      This article shows what happens when expats have no political say in the way the municipality is run. Just cash cows.

      http://www.theleader.info/article/38466/neglect-of-orihuela-costa-infrastructure/

    • #116685
      logan
      Participant

      I could write a book on this subject. Many years ago when I was in business in Spain, myself and a group of expats formed a political party and fought the local elections with a front man standing against the corrupt mayor.

      The same thing was happening, cash being siphoned off for the mayors pet projects. Our new party managed to split the local vote and the mayor lost the election. Our candidate was elected and a new mayor installed. The previous mayor eventually went to jail.

      The moral of this tale is you don’t have to put up with it. Organise and be determined. It’s bloody hard tedious work unless you are a natural politician. It took a year out of my life. Was it worth it? Not sure the place is still a bent as it always was. 🙁

    • #116688
      Anonymous
      Participant

      You can get rid of one or two corrupt persons. Where the corruption is in grained it needs different tools.

    • #116695
      GarySFBCN
      Participant

      Not that anyone deserves this, but just about every suburb, rural and non-city area I’ve visited or lived in has this type of problem to some degree.

    • #116698
      Anonymous
      Participant

      Town halls are not responsible for maintenance of out of town suburbs at all; you might pay a small amount of IBI (council tax?) but this does not cover roads, lighting, drains etc etc in your area 😕 😕 😕 😕 😕 . SO REALLY it’s about time that moaning minnies 😥 😥 😥 😥 😥 check out what their municipality covers!!!! ……… If you don’t buy in the town centre or close by then you need to form a macro community and collect from the micro communities for the on going maintenance 😕 😕 😕 !!!! this fact is also reflected in the low IBI rates!!!

    • #116701
      logan
      Participant

      For “moaning minnies’ read, people who hold any opposing view. 🙂

    • #116712
      Anonymous
      Participant

      NO LOGAN, you’re wrong again- I’m just pointing out the prevailing law!!, which you should be aware of in view of your recently revealed past as a Spanish town hall member/agitator 😉 😉 😉 . Nothing worse than guiris who come here complaining about the local modus operandi 😕 😕 😕 . I know it drives the Brits crazy when the newly arrived arabs, eastern europeans and asians want to impose their customs and laws on the local way of doing things.. 😐 😐 😐

    • #116713
      logan
      Participant

      In my long experience the Spanish are actually more vocal about town hall corruption that foreigners. In the party we formed almost three quarters were local Spanish and were as keen as us to rid the town hall of crooks.

      Incidentally it was almost twenty years ago so not a recent experience. The striking fact is nothing really has changed a bit in that time and I doubt it ever will.

    • #116762
      Anonymous
      Participant

      Orihuela Costa has a similar problem to Moraira/Teulada and Albir/Alfaz del Pi, thriving and growing coastal communities full of expats, still administered by a distant, backward and shrinking inland administration.

      It is more pronounced in Orihuela Costa because it makes up 30% of the Orihuela municipality, 30,000 expats who have been severely neglected by the town hall. But the expats have elected their own councillors and things are slowly changing, far too slowly because Spanish municipal laws take years to change.

      Orihuela Costa, with 30,000 inhabitants, doesn’t even have its own cemetery. Perhaps they expect all those residents to return to their former countries to die.

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