In the municipality of Elche, and consequently also not close the Alicante-Elche Airport, no licence has been given for automobile parking lots for 2024 and 2025. In addition, throughout the same two-year period, there were no inspections of this type of activity, and therefore, no investigations were launched. This despite protests by people, especially particularly inhabitants of Torrellano and El Altet that these types of enterprises continue to establish themselves in the neighbourhood.
This is the answer just given by the government of the coalition PP-Vox, through the Councillor for Women, Commerce, Hospitality and Local Development, Caridad Martínez, after the spokesperson Esther Díez presented a written request on February 4th, in which she asked about the number of licences for short-stay vehicle parking lots granted in 2024 and 2025, the first two full years of the local government, as well as about inspections and open cases against these types of businesses in Elche. The result: zero licences and zero inspections and cases, despite the fact that the governing team itself announced in April 2024, two years ago, that it was carrying out a “detailed study” to understand the situation of the areas designated for rental vehicles and those converted into parking zones in the vicinity of the Alicante-Elche airport.
No limitations, no controls
The spokesman of the Valencianist party Compromís pointed out that “for Compromís this response from the PP and Vox municipal government regarding the lack of inspections or records of the unregulated open fields that are proliferating throughout the Camp d’Elx demonstrates that the mayor, Pablo Ruz, is allowing all these activities to take place in the eastern part of the Camp d’Elx, generating problems for the neighbours without putting any limits or controls on it.” This was said after the response of the two-party coalition. Also, she stressed that the right-wing government “had three years to continue with the special plan that, in the previous term, the left-wing government put to public consultation. This idea would have permitted the regulation of the whole airport area and at the same time would have handled the problem of water accumulation that the surrounding inhabitants are experiencing.”
From the field to the dump
The incident, according to Esther Díez, shows that “Pablo Ruz makes many announcements, many promises, but then nothing comes of it .” Also, Díez emphasises that “we had these big promises and this grandiloquence with the spills of the sewers, where it was seen that the mayor likes to make videos and then, when we asked, at most three sanctioning processes had been opened since the beginning of his mandate. “The urban planning process must continue to regulate all these types of activities in this rural area, which also has agricultural land,” argues the spokeswoman for Compromís. “The objective,” she says, “is that these types of activities are carried out with the necessary urban planning safeguards to minimise the impact they may have on the residents of El Altet and Torrellano, though we are here to defend their interests.”
With a macro campaign in the lead
Ruz’s staff replies when locals of Torrellano once again complained in mid-March about the growth of these types of enterprises in the neighbourhood . Specifically, they objected about the opening of a massive auto rental facility with a capacity for 5,000 cars near the airport. The complaint was made by the Airport Road Residents’ Association, whose president, Juan José Mateo, cautioned that the situation “is the same as in previous years”, without municipal assistance, he said. This is confirmed by the governing team in its response to Compromís, dated March 31, a few days after the demands of the residents’ collective were known. I’ve been complaining about the same problem, although now it’s obviously far more serious, going back to before I was mayor. “They haven’t done anything”, said Mateo, who went so far as to say that car rental firms “are springing up like mushrooms”, with more than 120 currently between the districts of Torrellano and El Altet – figures that the local government has never confirmed, despite saying two years ago that a census was underway.
Amendment of General Urban Development Plan
Furthermore, on March 20th, a week and a half before the response signed by his councillor for Business Openings to the question from Compromís, Mayor Pablo Ruz explained that the issue had already been discussed in a governing board meeting and that there would be news “soon” about the measures they wanted to take. This idea entailed a change of the General Urban Development Plan (PGOU) and a series of consultations with the residents of the region. But now a month has passed since the mayor of Elche made those claims and he has not disclosed publicly the facts of this planning adjustment. The two-party coalition itself has also admitted that no licences have been issued in the last two years, nor have any inspections or investigations taken place in the municipality of Elche, despite complaints from the public about the opening of new facilities of this type near the airport of Alicante-Elche.
