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Date Published: 26/09/2024

Rubbish deal: Orihuela Costa hit with 340 per cent hike in waste collection fees

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This ‘barbaric’ price increase comes after years of complaints about the lack of rubbish collections in Orihuela Costa

Rubbish deal: Orihuela Costa hit with 340 per cent hike in waste collection fees

To say the Orihuela Costa is in shock over the latest decision by the City Council is something of an understatement. Following months of pleas to the authorities to clean up the illegally dumped rubbish on dozens of streets and urbanisations which have mostly fallen on deaf ears, residents have now been told they will face a 340% hike in waste collection charges from January 1.

This means that homeowners will go from paying 70 euros a year to 238.76 euros, even while household rubbish, building rubble and garden trimmings pile up outside their gates.

“Those of us who have the least service and those of us who pay the most,” one bewildered local said, while another sardonically quipped that Orihuela City Council should be paying the residents, and not the other way around.

According to the Council, the price increase is in response to a European law that requires town councils to charge the real amount of the service cost. However, the Cabo Roig and Lomas Residents’ Association (AVCRL) point out that there’s also a law requiring the local authorities to actually collect the rubbish.

“It is a service that is not provided anywhere near as it should be,” they insist.

This week, the council has started clearing some of the illegal dumps, but this barely scratches the surface of the problem.

The association has repeatedly highlighted the images of rubbish accumulating on the streets of the coast. People dump all sorts of rubbish indiscriminately without consequence, and even the bins that are in place are mostly broken and without lids.

In short, residents are fed up with decades of neglect in terms of services and infrastructure and now feel understandably penalised by this increase.

The opposition parties have now called on the regional government to show exactly how they came up with the extortionate waste collection figure, with one politician calling the 340% price hike “absolute barbarity”.

In other news: German tourist dies after mistaking campervan door with toilet while speeding along Spanish motorway

Image: AVCRL

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