The political parties fighting the local elections in 2019 answer questions posed by Para Una Xabia Sostenible based on the EDUSI project
Question 6
We must create close links with the natural environment.
So that the town stops being a threat to the environment (Jet skis, parking …). Reconciling the relationship between the built up area and the surrounding territory, reducing the pressure of parking by the beach and recovering the peri-urban paths.
Do you agree with this point of view? If so, how will you solve this problem?
Compromis reply
We totally agree with this. In this legislature, thanks to the work -among others- of Compromís in the Generalitat, we have the legislation and the appropriate regulatory tools to better regulate the relationship between towns and the natural environment. To begin with, we now have an Urban Law that is committed to consolidating urban centres instead of promoting new developments. And we are glad that in general terms the new General Plan of Urban Planning of Xàbia travels along this road, although there has been a lack of participation and citizen input and many aspects remain to be improved. We also have greater protection of the coastal area and of the wet and flood areas: we now have tools to move away from urban and natural rural pressure.
This last legislature has made progress in limiting tourist pressure on certain areas -such as the cove of La Granadella, which we hope will also extend to Portitxol this year- but it is clear that we cannot succeed in this endeavour without the collaboration of neighbouring towns. For example, it is impossible to limit the influx to Cova Tallada from Xàbia if Dénia does not play its part in the area of Les Rotes. On a smaller scale, the same happens to us in the care and recovery of the forest area of La Granadella, for which we need a closer collaboration with Benitatxell. We cannot limit the inflow of boats and jet skis, etc. if we do not have the cooperation of the ports of Dénia and Teulada-Moraira … from Compromís we propose to have a common regional policy in this area for the Mediterranean Sea, considering for which the overpopulation of tourists and boats is a risk.
On a more local scale, it is clear that the issue of mobility is key. Without efficient urban bus lines between urbanizations and beaches with urban centres, we cannot seriously consider reducing the inflow of private vehicles. And as for this, we have already said before that our proposal is to use the municipal resources to put in extra bus lines in sensitive areas, as the Town Council of Benissa has successfully done, connecting the urban centre with the urbanizations and the Cala de the Fustera. The towns of the Marina have to learn from each other and, as far as possible, copy successful models. And complement it with a network of bike lanes and pedestrian paths that constitute a real alternative to the private car, not just an alternative leisure activity
We completely agree with removing cars from the seafront, but we have to take into account practical solutions so as not to generate a problem elsewhere: to give an example, we cannot move the parking problem to a Via Augusta already saturated with cars in high season or the salt marsh area of Saladar. This planning must be part of an alternative to provide safe car parks which at the moment we do not have. And once this is clear, we agree on a coastal round thinking about pedestrians and that it has a smooth transition with the sea and not a barrier like today. In fact, we should apply the same logic in the transition between urban and rural in the Granadella, the Tossal Gros, the Pla or the Montgó and in the flood areas along the Gorgos River; especially in areas that do not have parks to use or leisure spaces with animals.
Partido Popular reply
We must promote respect for the natural environment, and invest in cleaning and maintenance of the same, in the mountains, along the coastline, in the river beds, in ravines, on in agricultural roads, etc. ).
Environmental education should be encouraged, promoting courses and programs that have a positive impact on the environment.
We must value the local green infrastructure to preserve the main elements and processes of the natural and cultural heritage, ensure the ecological and territorial connectivity of it, in short, improve the quality of life of people in the existing town and in rural areas. And these will be the conditions that will bring together the ecological and sustainable Montanyar Walk, which we will carry out.
Podemos reply
(See bicycle tourism and mobility)
The protection of the environment is the main task of Podemos Xàbia, because it constitutes the true "Treasure of Xàbia". Trails and interurban bike lanes, well marked and promoted to stimulate this type of tourism and make this type of leisure available to the people of Xàbia. These are not just empty words of the electoral campaign. We have done many activities in this sense, the last one a march to reinstall the Gorgos River as a greenway, another treasure hidden and neglected.
Personally I hate jet skis (I am a windsurfer) and I will study the possibility of "banishing" them from the coast of Xàbia. I will also expand the areas reserved for swimming or boardsports without motor (windsurfing, stand-up paddle, etc.).
Ciudadanos reply
The protection of the natural environment is an unfinished debate in Xàbia. First, we chose a model of garden city, with large plots and green areas surrounding residential areas. We say this because apparently in the model to be implemented according to the approved General Structural Plan it is a compact city model and then we ask ourselves if you have to stop and think; because in addition, throughout these years we have seen how building has been allowed in areas near cliffs, knowing the risks of cliff fall, without requesting aid to improve the protections that prevent landslides such as that a few days ago has occurred in the Cala del Portitxol.
The advantage of living in Xàbia, integrated into and respecting the landscape is that you give importance to the richness of our environment, to our natural environment and understand that it is a value of Xàbia that we have to commit to transmitting for the future.
Therefore, we have to plan which kind of infrastructures we want to invest in, to have a Xàbia that lives with our surroundings, not that invades it or puts it in danger. An example of this is the connection between the Arenal and the Port for which we must invest in the Montanyar walk. The cars that currently parked there would have to use adjacent streets and we would clear the first line of elements which pollute and degrade our landscape. With this, it is about recovering roads, paths, communication in maximum contact with nature. I understand that our model should consist in wanting to come to Xàbia to start, generate employment, tourism or simply come to stay, do so because we know how to attract and transmit a lifestyle in full coexistence and contact with nature respected by land and by sea.
PSOE reply
One of the key lines of our government action in these years has been precisely this. Xàbia is today a benchmark for sustainable management in the Valencian Community. And in 2017 we led the debate on the whole Mediterranean area with the Xàbia Fòrum meeting. We have turned round tourism promotion (bringing more and more people) to tourism planning (changing more for the better, and preferring to create new residents rather than passing tourists). We have launched protection of the marine caves and all year buoys around of the Gravel beach, more ecological buoys in the south coast to protect the oceanic Posidonia, a general plan that preserves our most valuable natural enclaves, collaboration with the sailors and with the Fundació Oceanogràfic for the appreciation and defense of the marine environment, protection of the fishermen’s paths, reintroduction of the sea eagle on the Montgó, an anti-fire plan which Xàbia has never had to protect the forest and the people who live there … and with the Ministry of the Environment and the Regional Ministry we are preparing a coastal management guidelines that respect all the uses and make them compatible with conservation. Also worked with the Parc Natural del Montgó for the protection of Cova Tallada.
In addition, our objective in this term is to end once and for all the car barrier along the Montanyars and to return that coastal strip to the use of people.
I also want to remember that a few months ago, all these works earned us the prize of the Valencian Tourism Agency for Sustainable Tourism.
Ciudadanos por Jávea reply
It is essential not to destroy the resources on which our progress is based, we must protect our environment and make tourist uses compatible with the protection of our coastline. In this regard, it is urgent to adopt measures to prevent landslides in the areas of Balcón al Mar and Cala Ambolo, reduce the pressure of the parking lots on the beachfront, looking for an alternative, by enabling nearby parking spaces on the Augusta and adjacent roads. But it is also urgent that businesses in the area of the first Montañar return to occupy the space they had originally to stop extending and forming a barrier that prevents the view and access to the beach.
