The central postal office in Madrid have made the decision that as of 1st September 2014 the home delivery service in five areas of the Orihuela Costa will be cancelled unless multi-mail boxes are installed.

The areas that will be affected are: Dehesa de Campoamor, Cabo Roig, La Regia, La Zenia I and II.

The local Ayuntamiento have taken various steps to prevent and reverse this decision but so far they have not been successful in persuading the postal authorities to change their minds.

The decision has been made based on the fact that Orihuela Costa is a collection of separate urbanisations and not a town. In the master plan of Orihuela in 1990, Orihuela Costa barely existed and therefore was not defined as a single integrated entity and the postal authorities have used this out of date information as the basis of the suspension of post in the above mentioned areas.

The Correos claim that the population and frequency of postal deliveries in the specified areas, Dehesa de Campoamor, Cabo Roig, La Regia, La Zenia I and II do not meet the required levels.

During July, the local councillors and Town Hall will present an appeal to request the temporary suspension of this measure before its implementation in September. Should Orihuela Costa be established as an increasing integrated urban identity with over 30.000 residents, its own Town Hall, schools, public transport and other services, its own post office and post code (03189) the population and delivery frequency would be more than satisfied and this problem would then be eradicated.

The consequences of this measure going ahead would be extremely serious for those residents living in the affected areas, if they are not able to install the multi-boxes which is practically impossible in most cases they would have to collect their mail on a daily basis from the post office in Playa Flamenca. Creating a knock on effect to all other users of the post office that will then be affected by the longer queues and waiting times caused by the potential hundreds of people going to collect their mail.

The mayor of Orihuela, Monserrate Guillen said:

“It is vital that the residents of these developments do not loose a service they have due to an administrative decision made in Madrid. We will make it known that the arguments given by the Correos were incorrect and that the reality of Orihuela Costa is quite different. Sometime statistics do not truly reflect real life.”