The Torrevieja City Council’s extraordinary governing board meeting last Wednesday approved an extension of the contract between the municipality and Acciona, a garbage collection and street cleaning company. The issue of uncollected rubbish, which had been plaguing the initial residents of the La Hoya complex for weeks, has been fixed.
As the company assumes responsibility for the cleaning and rubbish removal of the first phase of the La Hoya mega-residential development, its yearly cost, which is presently €25.4 million (including VAT), will increase by €1,415,000. To pay for this crucial service, the municipality will have to spend more than €26 million a year. It is still one of the biggest municipal service contracts in the province and the most significant in the area. Depending on how many properties are occupied and whether first occupancy permits are issued, this change will be made gradually.
Cleaning the streets
Even though the housing blocks are only partially finished, street cleaning will be done all at once for 396,727 euros because the roads are open to traffic. Waste collection will only be covered for the first 105,000 euros because, at this time, the development has only delivered roughly 150 homes out of the 7,400 that it will be able to house in all its phases, as well as three islands with 19 containers.
Changes
Since the urban development had been permitted for over ten years, even if it was officially approved in 2021, and the beginning of the urbanisation works was nearing while the awarding of the service was being completed, this contract amendment was anticipated in the terms and circumstances.
Trash had been overflowing every day for weeks in the first residential zones, but this arrangement has fixed the daily waste collection issue. These first housing blocks, which have been pitched as apartments for middle- to upper-class inhabitants, also featured rubbish bins adjacent to them that had been overflowing for weeks.
Rubbish bins
Because the container islands are situated on the new streets that hundreds of cars use to avoid entering Torrevieja’s town centre when travelling between the CV-905 and the municipality’s northern coastal area, this neglect was particularly noticeable. The collection trucks emptied the containers on Thursday, a few hours after the governing board reached its decision.
Federico Alarcón, the secretary of the governing board, indicated that there will be islands with a total of 160 containers deployed after the home development on the site is finished.
Actually, in response to demand, the development keeps expanding. The construction of 172 new residences, as requested by Moorstyle Spain, as well as 11 commercial spaces, 29 offices, a gym, spa, sports area, swimming pools, and basements by a firm associated with TM, were approved by the City Council at the governing board meeting this Friday. A few months earlier, this latter company had asked for a change to the zoning plan so that local stores and a commercial sector could be added to the residential zone. These businesses are the industry’s top developers.
Revise
The contract update differs from the multinational’s claim for the full cleaning, waste collection, and beach cleaning contract that the new garbage service took on for over 400 million euros over a 15-year period at the end of July 2022.
The City Council rejected this last request. According to their technicians, the request’s justification—the increase in rubbish tonnage—is not adequately supported.
An unidentified three million euro investment
A few weeks ago, Acciona finished one of the major investments in its contract, which cost €3,093,000 (VAT included). The company’s new headquarters, parking, workshops, offices, and customer service centre on Avenida de las Cortes Valencianas are all covered by this investment.
The infrastructure is open to the public and employees, but the Popular Party’s governing team, which frequently highlights other municipal management milestones, has not visited or announced it. This suggests that the company and the City Council have been at odds ever since the new contract started.
Since Acciona’s fixed facilities in Torrevieja have consistently been one of the most contentious features of the previous stage of its service offering in Torrevieja between 2004 and 2022 due to their glaring flaws, this building has been long expected.
A building with a ground floor and three stories has been completed on a 4,330 square meter plot of land at number 7 on Avenida de las Cortes Valencianas. Calle Escultores Hermanos Blanco provides rear access. The project was completed in accordance with the design by the architecture team Israel Alba.
From administrative and citizen offices to parking for the fleet of collection trucks and other equipment, workshops, car washes, training rooms, union headquarters and most importantly, changing rooms that can accommodate up to 400 operators spread across work shifts, the new building centralises the technical and administrative coverage of the public service.
Author: Derek Appleton
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