Email by S Pokroppa for the Partido Popular

This is the English text of the email issued by S. Pokroppa on the 28^th April 2008 that I referred to in my posting on the 13th May. This was issued 1 month after the start of this campaign, 11 days after our meeting with Sr Aniorte, PP Councillor for the Coast, at which we presented him with the list and photographs of 30 sites reported by the residents of the Costa.

The Partido Popular have been in power controlling the Orihuela Municipality for 20 years, and only now after the launch of our campaign do they seem to admit there is a major problem of illegally dumped rubbish in our area. Only now are they prepared to take action after being forced to by the power of the public speaking out.

THIS IS NOT AN INITIATIVE BY THE PP, BUT A FORCED REACTION!

The email was issued in three languages, English, Spanish, and German.

“Message from the 0ffice of the Councillor for European Residents, Beaches & Infrastructure, Orihuela Costa.

We would like to ask all the residents of the Orihuela Costa for their cooperation and assistance in identifying the illegal fly-tipping throughout our area. We also want to penalise the culprits and your help in identifying them is also essential.

Orihuela is a large municipality covering a large geographical area and a rapid response from responsible citizens in identifying the illegal fly-tipping area quickly, and if possible, those responsible, will assist us to clear the problem areas and bring the offenders to account. For this reason it is very important that the Police, all the workers and all the Residents are cooperating with the town hall.

Whenever an illegal fly-tipping is taking place please inform us by phone on 96 676 00 00, or come personally to the town hall to inform us. It would help if you could provide, if possible, photos of the incident or the fly-tip, and the exact address of the location. With your help it will be easier to start the process of cleaning our area and please keep in mind that because of the size of our municipality and the sheer volume of vacant land, it is very difficult for us to know all the existing rubbish tips, so we need your help.

The team at the town hall are fully committed and are very conscious of the wonderful potential we have in our area, and it is in all our interests to keep it clean and tidy. Fly-tipping problems can be sorted out quickly by bringing them direct to the town hall. Bringing these problems to the newspapers will not solve the problems and will only delay their eventual resolution.

The office of the councillor for European Residents, Beaches and Infrastructure Orihuela Costa, together with the headed councillor, are people willing to work without a break until this matter is resolved to everybody’s satisfaction and the offenders are penalised.

Your local town hall team is asking all of you, the residents of Orihuela Costa, for your cooperation. This is also your municipality and with your help we can make this area an even better place to live and an area of what we can all be proud.”

The text of the last sentence in the fourth paragraph has caused concern amongst some of the residents on the Costa and has been interpreted as a veiled threat by the PP.

There is a very big flaw in the message of the email. Reference is made to “ penalise the culprits”, “bring the offenders to account”, and ” the offenders are penalised” but this cannot happen at the moment as there is no Byelaw in relation to any matters relevant to the problem of Fly-tipping. Councillor Aniorte has admitted this fact.

The PP have had 20 years in power to sort this out but only now act to correct their own failure. Their own failure to ensure that the residents of the Orihuela Municipality have a clean environment to live in!