Does local government spend more on Rojales than Quesada?

Afternoon all,

I'm in the process of researching for a feature on the perceived / potential mis-spending of funds by Rojales council.

There's certainly a groundswell of opinion that, despite the Valencian government issuing more and more funds due to higher padron registrations in the vicinity ... Quesada seems to be left behind in terms of funding road improvements, public areas, fiestas, rubbish disposal and - worst of all - kids' play parks.

Rojales has some lovely refurbished public areas and the annual fiestas always seem to be better-planned .

Does anyone have anything that they'd like to comment on or raise as an issue?

Thanks ever so much
Simon
The Olive Press - Costa Blanca South edition

If you look at the population of Ciudad Quesada, you will see that the numbers have reduced over the last 5 years from 15,000 to 11,000 (ish).
In total, Rojales has a population of 16,560 so Quesada is obviously the driving force.

What is concerning is that 68% of the population are foreign and, I would assume, the majority of those are British.

(A long way round but I'm getting there, honest).
The population of Quesada has not reduced in the last five years. The numbers who are on the padron has but, with the amount of building going on, I would suggest the population has risen, not fallen but those who register has dropped.
Rojales itself has far more Spanish then Quesada and will all be registered whereas in Quesada I am amazed at how many people say they are not on the register even though they live here on a fairly permanent basis. In Rojales itself I would say there are far more non holiday property owners.
As an example, I live on a big community with 180 properties. No more than 30 of those properties are occupied on a permanent basis which means 150 properties at least which don't get all year funding from the government and I'm pretty sure most of the communities around are the same. Rojales does have the odd community like that but nowhere near the amount that Quesada does.

Per head of population, I would also suggest the town hall gets more for Rojales itself than it does, on pro rata basis, for Quesada so that's where the money would go.

Not sure where the "annual fiestas are better planned" comes from. The several we do have in Quesada are always excellent and we also have the new Quesada Boulevard which is showing a lot of potential.

Another big problem is that the main road in Quesada (Avda de Naciones) is not controlled by Rojales town hall. It is a national road so should be funded by the central authorities and not the Valencia government which looks after all the CV designated roads.

Quite a bit was spent on the walk and play parks by the Cooper's Bar area. That's fairly recent and has improved that area immensely.

Oh, and our bins are now getting emptied (in this area) on a regular basis even though some areas are still not being done.

Hopefully the big plan to improve the centre of Quesada (which has, quite frankly, outgrown the original idea) will go ahead once the national and regional governments provide the funding.

Talking of wasted funds the perimeter fencing for the supposed botanical gardens that was promised many years ago.
The wooden posts will have rotted and fallen down before a botanical gardens are built.

Donapepa has never looked so bad with kerbside weeds and overgrown vacant land areas i have owned my holiday home 15 years back then this place was spotless and there was very few residents then compared to now.

I still love this place but very simple schedule of planning would make it 10 times better something the Spanish are not very good at.

Euromarina are only interested in one thing cramming as many properties in without any consideration to what amentities are needed as well as properties.

One problem I have encountered is whether or not to sign on the padron. I spend about 5 1/2 months here and rent it out for 16 weeks over the summer so the property is occupied for probably 9 or 10 months of the year. In my opinion Rojales council should be entitled to funding for my property but when I mentioned on the forum about signing on the padron I was told in no uncertain terms that it was illegal and I could personally get fined thousands of euros.

This has given me a big dilemma and I'm sure it does others too. As Marcliff says probably around 70% of homes in Quesada are holiday homes or rental homes, but as they enjoy the facilities the council provides surely they should be able to sign on the padron so the council can get adequate funding for the population.

Oh and my bins are now only emptied 3 or 4 times a week as opposed to every day in September, so definitely the service here in the upper Golf area is worse than it was.

Unfortunately they are correct as you are not supposed to be registered on the Padron unless you have Residencia. That is the law now. Also the streets in Quesada in the area I reside are not cleaned as often as the road in Rojales where my friend lIves and I can't remember the last time the guy with the weedkiller pack on his back was seen spraying the roadside weeds in Quesada and don't get me started on the state of the pavements.OMG!!!!

I am glad someone's bins are being emptied on a regular basis. I live at the top of Avda Costa Azul and they appear to be emptied on a Mon and Thursday. But not all. Most of the bins are in a terrible state, I thought with the new contract they were supposed to replace damaged bins.

Maybe a more interesting story would be one about the consequences of the council encouraging and facilitating non-resident property owners to register on the Padron.
When central government finally act on this - and fine the council and the people who are illegally registered, then take back the overpaid funding and reduce future funding to the correct level - the impact on the entire area will be devastating. If you think things are bad now, just imagine what it will be like when the budget is slashed.

It would also be interesting to see how people who are illegally registered would react to fines of up to €10,000 per person. Would they just pay and say ‘oh well’, or sell their holiday home?

Pete.

Anyone spending more than 3 months in Spain should obtain residency. Only if you spend more than 6 months in Spain do you become a fiscal resident and start paying income taxes.
To obtain residency, fiscal or non-fiscal, you must be registered on the padron so that makes a farce out of it being your main place of residence.
Many, not just Rojales, councils allow non-residents to be on the padron especially for taking out non-fiscal residency and, indeed, encourage such residents to do so. Arboleas in Almeria, where I know some friends, insists that anyone residing for a period of 3 months and becoming non-fiscal residents are to be on the padron.

I can find no articles, comments, views, reports or anything at all on any website, search engine (English or Spanish) where anyone has been fined for being on the padron without being a resident nor can I find anything about any council being fined for allowing non residents to do so.

Scaremongering from someone outside a council area which does allow you to sign on the padron as a non-resident is one reason why the money isn't there to fund public services.

The Rojales council, as many other councils in Spain, define habitual residency as it being your only home in Spain regardless of how long you live there.

The Spanish authorities are very good at claiming money and issuing fines to bring in some extra cash. If this was such an issue, I'm sure they'd have done it by now.

I live on Calle Quevedo and around here the bins were emptied every day until about 6 months ago. Since then it has been very hit and miss - maybe once every 2 or 3 days. Every day around Quesada I see overflowing bins. The situation in Parque Recorral is much worse - the bins there can sit for well over a week overflowing with BBQ waste and dog mess. it smells awful and it has to be a health hazard. Although we all pay the same taxes it's clear that we don't receive the same level of service.

There's a discussion about padron registrations and income to Rojales earlier on in this thread, but since the basura tax was split out of the water bills this year I assume all of that goes to Rojales, and it has to be paid regardless of residency, so there's a big amount of income generated by Quesada that's going somewhere???

Marcliff

In answer to the OP, I don't get the impression that less is spent on Quesada, however Quesada it possibly seems has by far the bigger area and proportionately less people contributing. Although I'm not trying to condone council spending, and particularly the bin situation, it could be that it is struggling to control an ever increasing population/houses without the equivalent funding.