War of words continues between parties over Arenal flooding

A war of words has developed between mayor José Chulvi and the Partido Popular (PP) over the regular flooding of the Arenal zone during heavy rainfall such as that experienced last week. The PP initially claimed that the mayor had turned down their offer to find a solution whilst he countered that it was the PP which caused the problem in the first place by allowing two developments to be built on a natural flood zone.

The PP has responded once again with a long tirade against the leader of the local government, accusing him of conveniently forgetting that it was a PSOE council that agreed an urban plan in 1990 that would allow the future development of land in the Arenal and that he can’t pass on the blame by placing it firmly at the feet on previous local governments.

“You can’t live your whole life blaming others for your poor management. [Chulvi] is running out of excuses at the moment. Is it true or not, Mr Mayor, that, since this current legislature began, the PP has reached out to collaborate and work together? Is it true or not that, after Storm Gloria, the PP presented a motion to take preventative measures that would prevent damage from storms with concrete actions?”

The statement accused the mayor of failing to admit to residents that if he had listened to the PP then the Arenal would not have been flooded again. “It is not rabble-rousing, but rather the truth. Politics is there to work, solve problems and improve the lives of citizens. And not to always be looking back and saying that the problems are the fault of others when the only one to blame for the problem not being solved is you.”

The motions presented by the PP proposed to take preventative measures to prevent damage by future storms, to improve pedestrian safety in the last section of Avenida del Pla where there is no pavement, and to enable and have regular maintenance of the sports zone in Jávea Park and improve gardening, cleaning and a police presence in the area – all have been received with a response more typical of a party in opposition, the statement said, rather than a governing body and executor of projects that greater quality of life to its citizens.

The statement continued: “It is our duty as an opposition to claim a solution for the Arenal. There have been too many years of flooding and the only action that has been taken to solve the drainage problem began with the installation of the storms drains in Avenida Tamarits by the PP government which was completed by the Monfort administration. The following government teams have never had the detail of maintaining or expanding them and taking care of the Arenal it deserves.”

It further claimed that, in almost nine years of socialist rule, nothing has been done to solve the problem, only to try and place the blame of a PP government of 15 years ago, despite the fact that the development of Arenal 3 and Arenal 3A was approved by the “expanionsist” General Plan approved in 1990 by the PSOE and that, like any land, its owners have the right to develop it in the same way that land is being developed on Cabo de San Antonio, and in the same way that a restaurant is being built on the coast along the Second Montañar – “or has that been prohibited?”. The statement said: “If they didn’t want that land to be developed, they had time to declassify and compensate. But they didn’t”.

“It is curious that in those days they did nothing to declassify the Arenal because, for this urban process, the Chulvi government doesn’t know how to do it. And the most recent case we have is in the Granadella zone, where land that has been classified as ‘Non-Development Land of Special Protection’ has been declassified in the General Structure Plan that is being drafted by the PSOE municipal government so that it can be developed”

“This is the government of Xabia. A government that cannot make constructive and positive proposals, because it does not accept them meeting after meeting, nor because it is a demand from residents and business people year after year. What is happening to us is that it has been too long, we are promised only when authorities come to visit our disasters, but nobody here has seen anything. Today is the Arenal, but the town is the same, we can have 80 projects but if we do not prioritize the needs of Xabia, we all lose”.