For year, residents on one area of Torrevieja have had to put up with severe flooding, whilst the rest of the municipality has foot the bill through taxes. Now, it looks like both of the problems could have been avoided if the previous government had ensured that proper plans were in place, or at least listened to the opposition (now in government), who voted against it.
The Directorate General of Roads has reported that they must “Suspend and paralyze all the construction works of Sector S-6” (Villa Amalia) because “it does not have a favourable sector authorisation from the Ministry of Development”, as reported by the Mayor of Torrevieja, José Manuel Dolón, at a press conference, who has described this situation as “very serious and unacceptable” and derives from the approval in full of the Partial Plan in 2011 with the votes of the absolute majority of the Partido Popular, with the of both Los Verdes (whom the current Mayor represents) and the PSOE (now ruling in coalition) being against the plan. Meanwhile, the APTCe abstained.
The mayor explained that in 2011 the Popular Party should not have approved this Partial Plan that lacks the mentioned sectorial report, which is both binding and obligatory, and the reason why the Directorate of Roads indicates that “they must suspend and paralyze all construction works within Sector S-6, so long as there is no authorisation for the Urbanisation Project by the Ministry of Development on the matters of its competence”.
The report on which this stoppage is based also points out that “The whole of Sector S-6 Villa Amalia is flooded, given that the lack of a network of stormwater sanitation and all the runoff from it is concentrated in the area of public domain of the National Highway N-332, generating a serious drainage problem in it.”
At this point, José Manuel Dolón stopped to explain a political point, in that the Partido Popular “has used falsehood and deception to attack the Municipal Government” in reference to which the PP was denying that the plot of this sector qualified as school ground in which the parents of CEIP Amanecer students wanted the new school to be built, after the Ministry rejected it for that reason (due to its nature of flooding). Dolón has insisted that it has been a way to “manipulate and deceive people”.
The residential area that is affected by this request to cessation does not have “any corrective acoustic media” and, in addition, is affected by the “design project and construction project of the duplication of the Torrevieja variant on the N-332 road, currently in drafting”.
The mayor explained that he requested a report from the municipal technicians once they had been aware of “this very serious issue” that is going to suppose “brutal damage to the City Council, but moreover, could seriously affect innocent people who have bought properties in the area, trusting that the town hall would play their part in ensuring the correct procedures and plans are applied, actions which the Mayor has described as, “almost criminal.”
The Mayor is now waiting for the municipal report to “see what measures we have to take”, whilst Dolón clarified that, “the Direcotate of Roads have competence to act and to paralyze the works” and he went on to explain how the City Council will communicate the current situation of this sector “with an urbanisation that in some areas is already fully consolidated and that they act within their skills, they can paralyze the construction”.
For years, residents have had to endure flooding in their homes, a situation which has not only affected them, but every resident of the municipality who have shared the burden of cost. “The lack of rainwater infrastructure in that urbanisation and It has cost the tax payers 301,000 euro, costs assumed by the City Council, through the Agamed joint venture, the channelling and storm water evacuation that as a consequence of the execution of the infrastructures of the urbanisation were accumulated in the avenida de Desiderio Rodríguez, in front of the urbanization la Veleta and the connection with the CV95, works that were executed in 2017”.
