Euro Weekly News - Costa Blanca South 7 - 13 March 2019 Issue 1757

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Voted Best

ISSUE NO. 1757

7 - 13 March 2019

Newspaper in Spain 2017 & 2018

COSTA BLANCA SOUTH

YOUR PAPER, YOUR VOICE, YOUR OPINION

EXCLUSIVE By Julie Day WHEN the residents of the Bahia Bella urbanisation purchased their properties, they all imagined their life thereon would live up to its name. Unfortunately, it does not and looks more precarious by the day. Bahia Bella is located on the southern edge of Los Alcazares, but lies within the boundary of Cartagena and therein seems to lie the problem. In Bahia Bella, the residents pay rates of up to €800 a year to Cartagena Town Hall. For this princely sum, they receive nothing in return. There is no refuse collection, no road maintenance, no street lighting, no sewage and there aren’t even any pavements. The reason for this, according to Cartagena Town Hall, is because the village lies in a flood plain and is therefore illegal. However, according to Bill Hulse, who has lived on the urbanisation for more than 13 years, it is only classified as a flood plain because for several years the council has failed to maintain the watercourse which was built to protect the village from flooding.

And Bill is not the only resident that believes the town hall’s refusal to act and therefore not have to fork out any money is due to the council’s own classification of the land the urbanisation is built on. “Our stretch of the rambla has not been properly cleaned or maintained for several years. The section from the bridge under the N332 to the Mar Menor has not been cleaned at all,” explained Bill. “Recently, there has been some cleaning, which was definitely inadequate, but there has been no maintenance whatsoever. “The stretch past Las Lomas del Rame, which belongs to Los Alcazares, is a nearperfect example of how a rambla should be kept clear, with well-maintained banks higher on the side facing housing than that overlooking fields,” explained Bill, adding: “Why can’t Cartagena do the same for us?”

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CREDIT: Julie Day/EWN

Flood fears for Bahia Bella

NO PROTECTION: Bill Hulse stands by the rambla at Bahia Bella, which has been left unattended for many years by Cartagena Town Hall.

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