ORIHUELA COSTA WINS A CASE AGAINST THE TOWN HALL

ORIHUELA COSTA WINS A CASE AGAINST THE TOWN HALL.

The local authority "wall of silence" as a way to violate the rights of citizens.

Núria Pérez (journalist).

THE FAILURE response of the City of Orihuela to requests for information, complaints and suggestions from the public, has been successfully taken to court by an Association of neighbors and merchants. Citizen Movement La Zenia II.

Elche Court for cases against public authorities (administrative litigation) has ruled that the local authority has violated the basic rights of citizens and associated information and has ordered the City to pay 500eu. Court costs.

The president of the La Zenia Citizen Movement, Félix Arenas, told the Costa Blanca News the objective of the request was to find out if the projects and motions involving Orihuela Costa, which had been approved at the town hall meetings, were taking out, and if not, why?

The court order says that once the request (application) is accepted, the City is required by law to respond within three months, and stresses that the right to request and receive information from the authorities is protected (or protected) by article 29 of the Spanish Constitution.

The Association has been asking for information about projects in Orihuela Costa and motions.

"The City Council left us no other option than to bring a lawsuit to protect our basic right," he said.

The lack of answers is a common practice of the City of Orihuela, citizens and associates have complained several times about it before.

Attempts have been made to contact the City Council through several methods- Online Green Line service, e-mail and official application forms that can be presented online and to the Town Hall registry-but almost never respond.

The spokesman of the Federation ... (FAOC) Tomás Moreno congratulated the Citizen Movement for its success.

"We are now aware of the best way to protect our basic right to information," he said.

Mr. Moreno pointed out that the FAOC has submitted 22 official requests for information to the City Council since January 2017 and none of them has received an answer so far.

Almost all local departments have been officially asked for information on an issue involving Orihuela Costa, although most were presented to the city's cleaning services, garbage collection and street cleaning, and the mayor's office.

Villamartin residents association also noted that none of its 20 requests for information has received answers and also regretted that this is a common practice by the City of Orihuela.