IMPORTANT UPDATE: Change.org petition for Quesada

This morning's meeting held between Katrina and Nick Snowden, Lesley Judd, Matt Smith, Dirk Fraiss the new councillor for Quesada, Lourdes Lopez, was a very useful informative and productive one.

Several points came out of the meeting:

Weeds and maintenance:

If you live in an area which is generally full of weeds and looks very untidy, you must go to the council office in Quesada, in Calle Blanca in person and ask for an "instancia" form . Matt or Dirk will help you fill it out and help you upload photos so you can show evidence and follow it up . If you have a digital signature, you can do this online. When you do this, you can also attach photos. Best to go in person as you have come back if you see no improvement! The form is in Spanish so if you don’t understand please get help to fill it in from Matt or Dirk in the municipal office.
To make you all aware, the contract with the company that currently maintain the cleanliness and weed control is up for renewal and we have strongly put across the current complaints. Also to make you aware that the company only have 14 employees to maintain 250 km of roads and in effect 500 km of paths . It has been suggested that a volunteer organisation is set up because clearly there are a lot of problem areas . I also need to make you aware that new EU legislation says that you cannot use weed killer anymore! So they need to be hand cut and removed . This is a massive undertaking that we feel we should all make an effort to help with and a coordination plan is currently being discussed.

Padron :

You can get a padron in the council office in Quesada, you don't need to go to Rojales ayuntamiento. It will take 24 hours longer to be registered but it is an easy way to get on the padron. More names on the padron mean more money given to our local council by the Government. This is money for spending on infrastructure, as the population grows we must ensure we get this valuable cash . You don't need to be resident to be on the padron and even if you are renting you should be on the padron but you will need a copy of the deeds and a rental contract in Spanish. The town hall will write to you by post( although some people don't get post!). Normally, depending on where you are resident, you have to re- register on the padron every 2 years, but you should be notified by the council beforehand. You will find that for some things you need an up to date padron ie less than three months old .

Taxis and buses:

There are only 8 taxis as the taxi licence costs a staggering 60,000 Euro per licence!. The main problem is that in the winter months there is very little work and in the summer months the population of the whole of the south coast increases by thousands and there would never be enough taxis to cover this . Another problem is that Taxis can only operate in their own area currently, so you have to try and get a Quesada taxi to the airport , hospital and to make local journeys but Rojales and Torrevieja are currently working on trying to sort something out so that you can use a Torrevieja taxi to but as you can appreciate this is a very difficult task that is a problem throughout southern Spain especially in the summer.
The money to set up bus routes is set by the Valencian government not Rojales town hall. It may be a long long time before buses from Quesada to Torrevieja or Guardamar are set up as other towns along the coast also want funding to set up bus routes ! Also currently buses can only operate within their area and not travel into other towns , many town councils are currently petitioning Alicante and Valencia to sort this out . Again another difficult issue to resolve but perhaps now you have a better understanding of why it is so problematic.

Crime:

There have been a spate of burglaries in the past few weeks and months which the police and guardia are very aware of. If you have had anyone steal anything no matter what, be it a plant pot or valuables, you must tell the police. They want to know and must know in order for the town hall to know what is going on in our area. The current statistics show crime is less than previous years but the reality is that we know that this is not the case but for some reason people do not report everything. There are currently 40 police officers and two patrol cars that circle the area 24 hrs a day .

Pot holes and state of roads:

If you see potholes in the road and it is a public road , please report it to the council office, preferably with pictures. Fill out an "instancia" in person in the town hall or if you have a digital signature, you can do it online. If it is a private road, then you can also report it and one of the councillors will have to ask the owner of the road to repair it! The private roads are owned by the Quesada family, it’s in the best interest of the area for the local businesses who are tenants to petition their landlord to make much needed improvements! We hope to be able to work closely with all parties on this in the future.


The front entrance to Quesada :

It’s disgraceful ! I have been informed this is private land, the owner lives in Madrid . Rojales council have approached them in the past asking to purchase this land and have already drawn up and passed full plans to completely renovate the area but unfortunately the owner will not sell it. It is believed that it is currently rented out to a local business that use it as open storage, not what we wanted to hear and again a very difficult problem to resolve but one which we will continue to work on .
Good news about Calle Baja and the road which runs in-front of Caixa bank and up to the mini golf , it will be totally renovated starting very soon, possibly starting in the next couple of months. It will join with another road further up to help ease congestion by clearimg the waste land and adding a mini roundabout by Merca Benijofer . This work is going to cause some disruption but please bear with it as it will be an enormous improvement in the long run .

Parking:

Again this is a difficult area to tackle as a lot of the land is owned by the Quesada family, we can only hope in future to speak with them and help them to see the error in short sightedness. Private land is always difficult territory and one that needs a very careful approach.


Dirk Fraiss is at the council offices in the square on Calle Blanca Wednesdays and Thursdays 9am until 1pm, he will be happy to hear your concerns and help you fill in complaint forms . He is also there to advise on renewal of the padron and registration to vote . In the near future we should be able to apply for our first padron at our own municipal office but currently we must go to Rojales Ayuntamiento to do this .

I hope this makes things a lot more transparent and very soon we will be starting a Facebook group where we will posting information about many local improvement projects and past improvement projects that you might not be aware of . I think it’s important to know where our money is being spent .
Also we hope to let you have information about how to make a complaint, where to go , who to speak to . Information about the padron and your right to vote . It will be an information site but also somewhere where you can put forward concerns and suggestions for improvement. I hope that once it is set up you will use it. Meetings may also be arranged in the coming months where we can all have our say.
I hope this has helped you all as much as it has helped us to understand a lot more .

The entrance to the town is appalling and looks like a builders yard which it is as is all the crap from the pool company which is owned by Euro Marina , they have sites all around the area also with piles of crap , fat chance of them doing anything about it .
Parking is a problem as the council do not have compulsory powers to purchase unused land as they do in the UK for parking .

Litter has increased with arrival of burger king with wrappers and bottles jut thrown out of there vehicle after they have eaten there junk food , weekends are bad ..

Seen them clearing up on the undeveloped land between Lidl and Tesco today. Its such an eyesore normally, so good to see some sprucing up being done.

Totally understand how you feel. That's why as many people as possible need to sign the petition which will be presented to the councillor here in Quesada. The link is at the bottom. Please also share the link with as many people as possible as it seems fb have taken it off. A huge thank you!


https://www.change.org/p/ciudad-quesada ... dium=email

I support you 100% in your quest, but i think this issue is more widespread and encompasses the whole of the Orihuela costa. Litter and poorly maintained roads and footpaths are the largest issues from my observations. Where ever you go, litter (especially recyclable materials) are chucked all over the floor because the bins are never emptied frequently enough, especially in peak occupancy times like the summer.

Then there's the paths/roads. Cracked tiles/slabs, pot holes, weeds growing all over the place, tripping hazards galore all around yet nothing ever seems to get done. One only has to look at the condition of the paths at the San luis (different town hall i know) roundabout to see the neglect i am talking about. I'm amazed that no one has tripped over there and seriously hurt themselves. Let alone the impossibility it must be for disabled or people with mobility issues to navigate the minefield. It's that bad, that the path was not even finished when it was built, however many years ago that was (35?).

Still, always enough cash in the pot to spruce up and make a fancy shiny roundabout, or build some other venture that will see little use and only add to the 1000's of other things that need regular maintenance.

And then they go and give the go ahead for more houses to be built lol (playa flemenca).

In comparison to other parts of the costa blanca, orihuela costa is a dive, yet must accomplish some of the highest amount of taxes per population.

In the area between Calle Rico de la Sagra and Pico St. Barbara, there has been a lack of street lights for over 20 years, (YES YOU READ THAT RIGHT OVER 20 YEARS) roads and pavements in poor condition and overgrown with weeds. The whole area is a big mess.

Thanks for the information. This will be presented to the Councillor on Monday. Thanks for giving your time to let me know.

We are in Atalaya Park and come under Benijofar council. When we walk into Quesada the road from the Mini Golf to the Arches is the worst road in the area. Broken down cars oil on the road it’s smelly and dirty and the pavements uneven.
We were in Quesada for many years and have seen a decline in the pavements litter and rubbish. Where we are now our streets are cleaned regularly, weeds sprayed often and the bins are emptied every night.

Hi Yes, the Benijofer mayor is every proactive, so you are very fortunate. I have heard he is out most mornings early driving around and looking to see what needs doing. That´s what Quesada needs too!. Please can you sign the petition which is free of charge, Thanks once again!

Lesjud I see Taxis & Buses are 2 of the Problems back in the UK we used to run a Stretch Limousine business which also saw problems because Taxi Drivers did not want opposing taxi business es coming in to there area & stealing there trade but after a few meetings where it was pointed out it could be done legally by doing advanced bookings of return trips I.E. people phone & make a booking to be picked up at home or where they are in Quesada & get taken to La Siesta or further afield & want to be sure of getting home again so want to book the return trip but it cant be done due to the stupid laws of the area So a Quesada taxi has to pick them up & drop them off then give them a card of a local taxi office for the return journey who if are very busy locally are not wanting to leave there area & pick up dead mileage by taking clients to Quesada then returning empty to there own area. It does not allow them to pick up casual bookings in the area just confirmed bookings already logged in inn the office or on the computer. This happened to us in Scotland & it was also for safety as a group of ladies going on a night out want to know whos coming back for them to get them home safely? Because of this stupid law there must be around 30/50 illegal drivers doing taxi & airport runs & i know some who can do around 10/20 in a week without trying hard. So i fully support his petition as it saves everyone money & could save lives as well.