Rosa Cardona: “The neglect of Xàbia has been normalized”

Wednesday 23rd February 2021 | MIKE SMITH

Rosa Cardona, representative for the Partido Popular (PP) in Xàbia has issued the following statement after the last municipal plenary session:

This week during the ordinary plenary session, it has again become clear that the government team led by Chulvi continues to normalize the neglect that the municipality has been suffering for years.

Promising and promising, but at the moment of truth, [none of them are] fulfilled and the residents continue to have to put up with problems that should have already been solved, such as the Arenal floods, the cleaning and proper maintenance of beaches, gardens and parks.

The cleanliness and the image of Xàbia have declined. The town has numerous public spaces that are not being cared for by municipal services and that are maintained thanks to the selfless collaboration of many volunteers, something that is municipal responsibility and whose image is very important for the quality of life of the xabieros and xabieras and for tourism. A good example is the state of the ‘Ermita del Calvari’, [where there are] the remains of the bottles … on the ground, on the chapels, in addition to the undergrowth [where] there is the accumulation of needles, and to this, we could add that the leaks and humidity that deteriorate this municipal property have not been repaired.

Another issue is spillage. In the plenary session, they asked about the stagnant and smelly water in the last stretch of the Gorgos river next to Augusta Avenue, the sports courts of the IES Nº1 institute and the playground, a problem for months, and what was initially thought to be rainwater, the time has elapsed and the level of the sewage hasn’t lowered so that the suspicion has been confirmed that it is a spill from the pumping station of the treatment plant and that it will be solved. As always, the solution comes from complaints.

We are already at the gates of ‘Semana Santa’, Easter and Summer. Xàbia must be perfect for those who live here and prepared to offer its best aspect for the tourist season. And as long as there is no change for a productive change in Xàbia, as long as it depends on this tourist sector, we must commit ourselves at least to having the municipality impeccable. With this demand that was also made to the mayor in plenary session, no extra effort is requested from the municipal government, it is only asked to exercise its municipal powers. Something very basic.

Although the mayor tries to encourage the residents by saying that during 2020 there was maximum bed occupancy and in this way a serious response is avoided, he was asked in plenary to act now. If Xàbia is not clean, if the seaweed mountains have become islands within the Arenal, or if we do nothing to demand from the Coastal Directorate the regeneration of the beaches and coves of Xàbia, in the end they will fall one by one and disappear from our coastline. If what is offered is our landscape and surroundings, the beaches must be ready. For this reason, the Populares have asked to take into account the dates in which we are and the situation that many of the residents are going through due to the closures due to the pandemic. On the part of the consistory, everything possible should be done so that Xàbia shines for the next Semana Santa.

In short, this government has normalized bad smells and neglect, both in infrastructure, parks, or as in the area at the end of the Arenal. It is not normal to smell sewage in the streets and beaches, but much less in the most touristy areas.

You have to start taking care of and valuing Xàbia and not normalizing a situation that is unsustainable for a municipality of these characteristics. We need this government to get to work now and stop unfulfilled promises.

Information Source
Press Release – Populares Xàbia