OVFC’S OPEN LETTER TO THE MAYOR
Dear Mayor,
Our activities are not at odds with the rest of the municipality. On the contrary, we support the fair distribution of the tax burden, investment and expenditure, as well as the integration of the foreign and local communities.
Our initiatives
Over the last few years, we have had the opportunity to bring numerous initiatives and proposals for improvements to your attention, and have submitted numerous requests via the online portal, to which we have not received a reply. Not only is this unprofessional on your part, but it also fails to fulfil the legal obligation to provide a reasoned response to requests submitted via the online portal.
Lack of transparency
In 2018, at the start of your term of office, you yourself stated "We want the Town Hall to have glass walls so that our governance can be scrutinised by local residents at all times".
However, as things stand, the Council does not comply with Law 19/2013 on transparency, nor does it publish on its website information regarding the minutes of plenary sessions, contracts, agreements, grants and public funding awarded, budgets, annual accounts, the annual remuneration received by senior officials and managers, or resolutions authorising or recognising the compatibility of other employment undertaken by public servants. Nor does it publish calls for tenders.
Since 2018, the Council has not carried out any campaigns to encourage residents to register on the municipal register (Padrón) or the electoral roll, in spite of being aware that, in the 2023 local elections, only 15,99% of foreign residents were registered on the electoral roll. Despite this, no steps were taken in conjunction with the Provincial Branch of the Electoral Register Office in Alicante to encourage registration on the electoral roll.
Lack of citizen participation
You do not promote public participation and you rejected our detailed proposal on participatory budgeting.
OVFC transparency portal
Due to the Town Hall’s notorious lack of transparency, OVFC managed to publish the public information submitted by the Council to the Court of Auditors and to the Tax Agency’s accountability portal – in particular, the signed contracts, annual accounts and budgets. Had you fulfilled your responsibilities, there would have been no need for a residents' association to publish these items.
Fiscal imbalance
We have analysed in detail the signed contracts from 2022 to 2025, the balance sheet and the profit and loss account from 2022 to 2025 and have verified that expenditure on Cumbre del Sol does not even reach 10% of the total expending, except in 2022.
Based on the number of properties in Cumbre del Sol and their higher cadastral value, we have estimated the revenue from property tax (IBI) as well as refuse collection charges, building permits and parking fees at Cala Moraig, and assessed that Cumbre del Sol’s contribution to the municipal coffers exceeds 60% of total revenue.
We have asked for an explanation of this significant fiscal imbalance and requested in addition information on the source of funding, in particular for the grants received, but we haven’t received a reply either.
From 2034 onwards, once the 10-year period during which the reduction coefficient is applied to the reference taxable base for the IBI has ended, the Council will collect 8.018.576€ in property tax (IBI), assuming a tax rate of 0.8%.
In 2024 the year prior to the entry into force of the cadastral revaluation, 2.554.232€ was collected; in other words, from 2034 onwards, an additional 5 million euros in property tax will be collected each year. We have repeatedly requested information on how the additional property tax revenue will be invested, but have not received a response.
Property tax (IBI)
Between 2019 and 2026, the property tax rate has fallen from 0.85% to 0.80% – in other words, a mere symbolic reduction of 0.05% – which you continue to promote, whilst concealing the fact that property tax will rise at an annual rate of 10% from 2025 to 2034.
Even if the minimum rate of 0.4% is applied to the property tax base, from 2034 onwards, tax revenue will be substantially higher than the amount collected prior to the 2024 cadastral revaluation.
In the neighbouring municipalities of Teulada-Moraira and Benissa, the property tax rate stands at 0.51% and 0.65% respectively. This is significantly lower than in our municipality. This question inevitably arises: Why does it need to be higher in Benitatxell?
Your investment priorities
In June, you announced your intention to build a cultural centre on the plots of land purchased on Avenida de Valencia, claiming that it was a long-standing demand. However, in the Mès Benitatxell election manifestos of 2019 and 2023, this demand did not appear, as it was not even mentioned.
No details have been provided regarding the project, the budget, the funding or the timeframe for completion, but given that over 1 million euros was spent on purchasing the land, it is not hard to imagine that the cost will run into several million euros.
OVFC does not take a position on whether this investment project is needed but does remind you of the investment and spending priorities at Cumbre del Sol existing for many years.
Drinking water supply and drinking water quality
The poor quality of our drinking water is also a cause for concern, as well as the management of the drinking water supply, the high rate of leaks in the public network and the poor condition of the pipes in many areas of Cumbre del Sol.
The Teulada-Benitatxell Water Consortium does not provide information on water purchases from Amjasa or on committed investments.
The results of water quality analyses are published with a delay of more than two weeks, and the public is not informed that, for several months now, the sodium content has consistently exceeded the first alert level of 200 mg/L, whilst the vast majority of municipal water networks in Spain are between 10 and 60 mg/L.
Rubbish tax for tourist accommodation
In 2025, you amended the by-law on municipal solid waste from holiday accommodation and refused to provide one of our citizens on Cumbre with the mandatory economic and technical report on which that amendment is based, despite his legal right to receive it. This forced him to refer the matter to the Ombudsman, who, in his final ruling on the complaint lodged, confirmed that the law had been breached. Despite this, you still did not provide him with the report.
We are sure you are aware that, in March, The High Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM) declared Tax Ordinance 8/2024 (Ordinance regulating the fee for waste management services in Madrid, 2025) null and void, completely annulling the refuse collection charge.
Madrid City Council, just like Benitatxell Town Council had failed to publish the methodological appendices to the technical and economic report justifying how the amount of the charge was calculated, thereby undermining the transparency of the process and leaving citizens defenceless.
In 2025, the number of holiday homes fell by 23% in a single year; despite this, revenue in 2026, following the approval of the new tariff, will be 30.342€ higher.
Could it be that, the rate is not based on the cost of waste collection, as required by law, but has been calculated specifically to ensure that revenue increases following the sharp reduction in the number of holiday homes?.
It cannot be ruled out that, should these practices be brought before the Supreme Court via appeals, you may be required to refund the excess money collected.
A local council turning its back on foreign residents
The Town Council’s organisational chart does not reflect the linguistic or cultural diversity of our municipality. There is no department responsible for urbanizations, nor has a neighbourhood council been set up with representatives from all areas of the municipality.
The Town Council’s website should be multilingual, given that more than 60% of our municipality’s population are foreigners. You do not provide simultaneous interpretation for plenary sessions, despite knowing that only 30% of the population speaks or understands Valencian. Social reality is not reflected in the plenary sessions.
Our unanswered requests:
We wish to make public the demands that have gone unanswered so that the residents of Cumbre del Sol can judge for themselves:
- Renovation of the drinking water supply network in Magnolias and Pueblo de la Luz
- Street cleaning in Cumbre del Sol
- Resurfacing of the roads in Cumbre del Sol
- Renewal of all road signage (streets) in Cumbre del Sol
- Construction of the ‘OAC Cumbre del Sol’ building
- Installation of a fixed speed camera on the Carretera Superior in Pueblo Panorama
- Information campaign on the electoral register
- Petition to collect signatures in support of the CV-740 ring road
- Participatory budgeting
- Breakdown of revenue, expenditure and investment by area
- Making the municipal register available online
At OVFC, we will remain true to our founding mission. We are proud to foster a sense of an open and respectful multicultural community based on the values of solidarity and justice.
We would like to remind you that you are also the mayor of Cumbre del Sol and that the foreign residents of our municipality deserve the same treatment as those born in the municipality, in particular, the same provision of public services.
We invite you to reflect deeply on your governance in the run-up to the 2027 local elections and to consider our needs in your 2027 budget.
Yours faithfully,
The OVFC Board
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