During the last 4 years, since 2007, of the Partido Popular government of the Orihuela Town Council, the official opposition parties, namely the Los Verdes, PSOE and CLR, and the then unelected CLARO party have campaigned to save the area of land known as Cala de la Mosca from development for housing. It is the last section of the coastal strip within the Orihuela Costa area that remains undeveloped at this time, although planning permission had originally been given by the PP government in 1992 for a housing development.
Whilst all the opposition parties have voiced their objection to the development, the two parties that would seem to have been most vociferous in the campaign to 'Save Cala de la Mosca' are Los Verdes (Green Party) and CLARO, with many articles on their websites on this matter. The later organising a petition containing a quoted 7000 signatures that was presented to the then PP Alcaldesa of Orihuela, Monica Lorente.
Now that the Orihuela municipality has a tripartite government of PSOE, Los Verdes and CLARO; is Cala de la Mosca safe now from total destruction by the housing developer? Will the current government retract the planning permission given by the previous PP government.
As Orihuela has a Los Verdes party Alcalde (Mayor), Monserrate Guillén, and he appointed Robert Houliston of CLARO, as his right-hand man in the coastal area, as Councillor for Orihuela Costa; how long will we have to wait for the official announcement the Cala de la Mosca development has been stopped? Surely there cannot be any doubt about it as both parties included the question of the future of Cala de la Mosca in their election manifestos promising to save it.
I, and other residents of Orihuela Costa I'm sure, will wait with great anticipation to hear whether or not Cala de la Mosca is to be saved by the new tripartite Orihuela Town Council.
Edit: 18th July.
The Leader newspaper has paid me the compliment of publishing this article on the front page of this week's edition.
Wednesday 29 June 2011
4 comments:
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Although both CLARO and Los Verdes have had plenty to say in the past about La Mosca, it was Antonia Moreno of PSOE who landed in the most trouble when she posted an article in the Orihuela City Press about the site. She said that she would stop thye building and plant the same number of trees on the site as proposed buildings. She was threatened with Court action by the PP and the Developer. As all of the elected parties have been so vociferous about the subject in the past, we should all expect the appropriate action to be taken. Only problem we have? Politics!!!
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that you quote a tripartite government - I was under the impression that the election was fought (and won) by PSOE, Los Verdes and CLR/CLARO. Whilst the contribution of CLARO is in no doubt CLR still has it's voters and had CLARO stayed independent they may have had a similar result as in the previous election - 0 seats! In my opinion CLR should not be seen as a part of CLARO!
ReplyDeleteAs the contributor above says, the saving of Cala de la Mosca was part of all parties manifesto's in the previous elections. Certainly with the new administration being headed up by a 'Los Verdes' Mayor we should feel confident (?)
However this is just one of many grey areas - with a tripartite government and 3 separate manifesto's the residents of Orihuela City (and Costa) are in urgent need of a Public meeting/s to set out the new government's plans for both the short and long term future of our municipality.
Whilst I appreciate that the PP have spent (wasted) 70% of the 2011/2012 budget, plans can be formulated for implementation as soon as the new budget allows and they cost nothing.
I am cautiously optimistic about the future, but only time will tell.
Sorry for delay in publishing comments due to a problem in getting into admin section.
ReplyDeleteSunshineChris:
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. The reason why I call it a tripartite government, is because Bob Houliston of CLARO having got the position he wanted decided to break-up the CLR – CLARO election partnership, with both parties as we were told, still independent political parties. So it is a tripartite of PSOE, LV and CLARO in that order of power.
Having got what he wanted he has separated himself from the CLR, without whom at the election time, I agree with your comment, CLARO would not have an elected Councillor. I have never seen CLR as part of CLARO, on the contrary I have seen CLARO as an opportunist clinging to CLR.