Orihuela towns left without lights and decorations this Christmas
Due to budget constraints, the festive lighting will be confined to Orihuela Costa and the city
The new local government in Orihuela has been complaining for months now about the budgeting mess left behind by the previous administration which resulted in an entire summer of beaches without bars or sunbeds and local parks and playgrounds in a tangle of weeds and overgrown shrubs.
But the latest debacle is guaranteed to pour cold water on festive feelings as the Orihuela City Council has admitted it doesn’t have enough money to erect Christmas lights and decorations in the outlying districts and will instead just focus on the city and the tourism capital of the Orihuela Costa.
As it is, Orihuela is running well behind the rest of Spain and the big Christmas switch-on isn’t due to take place until Friday December 15, but with a paltry budget of 61,175 euros, the decorations this year will still leave a lot to be desired. This means that residents of Orihuela’s 24 districts, including popular expat enclaves like El Arenal and parts of Torremendo, will be left in the dark.
Councillor for Festivities Rocío Ortuño asked for “forgiveness” from the 30,000 or so residents that will be affected by this budget bungle.
“I was not going to leave the children without activities just to put up lights at Christmas, and with the money I had I had to guarantee the Santa Claus parade, the Village, the Three Kings Parade and the music, and the little money that was left is what we have destined for lighting,” she justified.
Even where the decorations are scheduled to be set up, in Orihuela and along the coast, the lights will be a fraction of their normal size and splendour, compared to the likes of neighbouring Torrevieja where the displays and nativity scenes are more impressive than ever.
The problem stems from the usual old issue of contracts. According to Ms Ortuño, the current contract to install the lighting and decorations expired when the previous regional government was in place, and there just wasn’t enough time to free up more money in the municipal budgets.
In Orihuela city, the switching on of the Christmas lights will take place at the Glorieta Gabriel Miró on December 15, to coincide with the inauguration of the Solidarity Market.
“We will work in the coming months so that this does not happen again,” said Ms Ortuño, who has promised that Christmas 2024 will be more spectacular than this year, which doesn’t seem like a very tall order.
“This poisoned chalice that they left us will not be repeated,” she reiterated.
Image: La Zenia Facebook group
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