BIG RUBBISH DUMP STAYS EXPECTATIONS DASHED

There was an air of expectation among Orihuela Costa residents living next to the biggest and ugliest dump behind the Go-Karts on the N332 in Playa Flamenca. After years of complaints, formal denuncias, exposure to the press and a letter to Monica Lorente, the Mayoress, was the famous dump finally going to be removed?

After all, unless it is authorised, a dump is illegal even if it is on private land. By law, neighbours are protected from the ugliness, the smells and the vermin, including rats, which inhabit such a disgraceful site. They should also be protected from the not very well looked after noisy dogs, also kept on the site in a kennel.

Hopes were dashed when it turned out that the Town Hall was tree planting – if the word “tree” can be applied to the 30 centimetre saplings they used. Some 30 of these saplings were planted in the small park next the petanque courts beside the rubbish dump. If they survive, in 20 years they might add value of this struggling park and, if the rubbish dump has not been removed, they may by then help to hide the dump from the view of some of the people living nearby.

At the end of January, the Orihuela Popular Party government, led by Mayoress Monica Lorente, led a delegation of some 200 people to a Madrid tourist promotion fair called Fitur. The visit is reported to have cost over €200,000. This is a shameful extravagance in a time of austerity. Did Monica Lorente boast in Madrid of the tourist attractions of Orihuela Costa's biggest and ugliest rubbish dump? You can bet she didn't. But for the amount she spent on her extravagant trip to Madrid, the Town Hall could have easily paid for the removal of the rubbish dump and, within the existing law, have obliged the owners of the land to compensate them. That is the sort of government we need in Orihuela Costa.