Is the right person in the right job?

There have been articles recently by the Spanish press in La Verdad and Diario Información.es and by the English Press in the Costa Blanca, the CoastRider and the Round Town News, reporting comments made by Mr Stefan Pokroppa, who holds the position of Coordinator of the Office of European Residents in the Orihuela Costa Town Hall, about the attitudes and behaviour of the residents for whom he is supposed to be liaising for and working with.

Los Verdes have issued the following press release about this matter.

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When reading the above articles, one wonders! " Stefan Pokroppa has been named, by decree 18.07.2007 by the Mayoress Mónica Lorente as temporary member of staff for the position of Coordinator of the Office of European Residents with annual gross salary of 27.000€.....".

But this person has not been appointed on the basis of competition, neither on the basis of his own merits.

The Municipal Group of Los Verdes denounce his insulting statements, unworthy of public office , against the European residents of Orihuela Costa. Mr. Pokroppa states vague generalities, seeking no less than to give a caricatured image of the European residents: they create their own colonies .....consume products coming from their countries of origin that they buy in shops run by fellow countrymen or more the little interest to learn Spanish.

From Los Verdes we believe that these are issues that relate only to the private sphere of the individual, it is not possible to impose on the people who live in the Costa a way of life that has not been chosen by themselves.

Los Verdes proposed an amendment to the Budget 2009, a Program of Integration based on recreational activities, on a permanent dialogue and above all with the agreement of the majority of the population of the Costa. Clearly this amendment was rejected by the Government of the PP.

Mr. Pokroppa considers that the main problem of the foreign residents is the lack of a fluent communication with the administration and the real estate promoters. Whose fault is it? Los Verdes consider that it is the responsibility of the Government of the PP, which is compromised when Mr. Pokroppa and some civil servants are at times so arrogant, often unpleasant and unwelcoming to residents from other countries, who consult them with requests for help.

As for relations with developers because of infrastructure deficiencies in the urbanizations, we also should have the effective support of the department of Mr. Pokroppa because ultimately, all management of licenses of urbanization, of planning permission, are granted by the Orihuela Town Council, that means the Government of the PP. But apparently, the close relationships between the circle of construction and real-estate development and the politics of the PP are so intense that systematically it blocks the claims of the residents.

Mr. Pokroppa adds: Orihuela Costa has been the scene of an urban planning explosion and that the exploitation came to such point that they did not finish – the developers- one construction and they started another one. True, but he forgets voluntarily to mention that the Government of the PP approves the projects of all these urbanizations, that the Government of the PP should have planned the development of Orihuela Costa with a rate allowing for the finishing of the infrastructures and that the Government should not have allowed urbanizations to be left unfinished, without light, without water and without certificate of habitability.

Finally Mr. Pokroppa says: in spite of these "setbacks" the European foreigners have decided to remain in Orihuela Costa He uses the term setbacks, those are more intractable problems for property owners. They are hostages with their capital property assets tied-up and with real-estate in a value free fall, due to the lack of planning, to the massive construction, untenable for the environment and the quality of life in Orihuela Costa.

Therefore, more than 20 years of municipal management of the PP in Orihuela Costa have been a failure, a fatal blow to the image of Orihuela Costa worldwide, and in this way it goes on.

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