Panic in Spain as resort loved by British expats filled with 'rats as big as cats'

Local residents living in the Orihuela Costa are up in arms about a new waste collection tax that they argue is completely unfair. Moreover, they say that rubbish is not being collected on a regular basis and is mounting up, attracting "rats as big as cats".

The Orihuela Costa is a very popular destination for British expats, who are believed to number 10,000. Pete Houghton is one of them. The 69-year-old former baker moved out to the Costa in 2006 with his family, after being offered a job. He is now a district councillor, who represents the interests of his community - many of them expats like himself.

Pete told the Express that residents were now paying four times as much as they used to for rubbish collection, but were getting a worse service.

Until last year the tax stood at €70 per year per household. However at "a stroke of the pen", the fee quadrupled to €202.

"It's not a fair tax," Pete said. "Right across the board whether you're one person or you've got a big family with seven children, whatever else - everybody now has to pay €202. The fee should be based on how many people live in a property and how much rubbish they produce."

Making matters worse, waste collections have become increasingly erratic, with piles of rubbish mounting up.

Pete said that when he first moved out to the Costa, he could hear garbage trucks doing the rounds every morning at around 2-3am, even on weekends. Now it was like a "flick of the coin", with active periods of rubbish collection followed by long lulls.

Many of the bins are broken, forcing residents to leave their rubbish on the pavement.

"Because we are an aging community on the coast, a lot of people have upper body mobility problems," Pete explained. "So they haven't got the strength to push the lid up and have no option but just to put the bag on the floor."

This inevitably attracts rodents, with some residents claiming to have spotted "rats as big as cats".

Waste management on the Costa is a thorny topic, having become tainted by corruption and malfeasance. The Brugal case is currently making its way through the courts and involves allegations of politicians and local officials taking bribes worth millions of euros over the granting of waste collection contracts in the Orihuela Costa dating back to 2006.

Asked whether contracts were being awarded to family members ir friends of local politicians, Pete replied: "It's always widely accepted that it's a job for the boys. We always say it's either a job for a friend, a job for his cousin, or a job for his wife's brother."

"From 2015-2022 there was a councillor in charge of waste called Damaso Aparicio, with the situation just as bad then as it is now," he added.

"Now he is the manager of a new waste company, which voted yesterday to award him a salary of €80,000 a year which has gone down better than the Titanic."

Fly-tipping is also becoming a major issue, as builders seek to avoid paying waste disposal fees. Residents regularly report finding old toilets and kitchen units dumped in their backyard.

"The bulk of it is builders' rubble," Pete said. "They are supposed to take all the rubbish to the eco-dump, but they don't."