From reform to transformation: La Oliva’s new plan. Opinion article by Isaí Blanco, mayor of La Oliva

La Oliva today is not the same place we knew ten or twenty years ago. Our municipality has grown, bringing opportunities but also putting enormous pressure on housing, water, cleaning, safety, infrastructure and public services.

Over the years, our priority has been to strengthen services that had become inadequate for the reality we face. This has meant boosting public safety by increasing the police force from 31 to 48 officers, alongside other improvements to equipment, and improving cleaning with the largest contract in the Town Council’s history. More than 130 workers are now focused on cleaning our streets, after years of inadequate service, when just 39 staff were responsible for tidying every corner of a municipality like ours.

These are important steps, but we are clear that La Oliva’s new reality calls not only for stronger services, but also for a further step: a clear plan for the lives of our residents.

One of the key areas in which we must continue to make progress is the Municipal Transformation Plan. Having secured almost €11 million to be spent by 2029, we have already begun the tendering process for projects focused on accessibility, infrastructure modernisation, sustainability and digitalisation — in short, the major transformation we must undertake to deliver for La Oliva.

This plan is more than a collection of separate works in different parts of the municipality. It is an opportunity to think about La Oliva as a whole, moving beyond temporary fixes and embracing an approach that changes how we get around, how we view our public spaces, how we modernise infrastructure and how we make our villages more accessible. Above all, it means recognising that improving things does not mean pursuing growth at any cost.

After years of small-scale solutions to the problems our residents encounter in their everyday lives, it is now time to go further and anticipate the needs of the community through planning, with the understanding that La Oliva needs a plan that sees the municipality as a whole if it is to move forward.

A plan that recognises that bringing order does not mean building more. By rehabilitating what we already have, we can make progress without continuing to consume more land. That is what we are doing through the Planned Residential Rehabilitation Areas programme, transforming areas such as Corralejo and El Cotillo, with around 400 homes renovated along with their respective public spaces. The project is also being extended to villages such as La Oliva, Vallebrón, Tindaya and La Caldereta. It is part of an approach that goes beyond isolated interventions and creates a sense of cohesion across a territory as extensive as ours.

For many years, we measured the success of our municipalities by their ability to grow — with more residents, more tourists, more economic activity and more construction. Now is the time to ask ourselves: what kind of growth can our territory sustain while maintaining the quality of life of those who live here?

Water, housing, mobility, healthcare, education, waste and landscape protection are all directly linked to that question. This is not about closing La Oliva off or giving up our main economic activity. It is about planning.

There are still problems to solve. It would be absurd to deny that. But these years have allowed us to strengthen essential services and launch projects that needed investment on a new scale. We now have the opportunity to build on that foundation and pursue a far more ambitious transformation.

I do not believe La Oliva needs to start again. I believe it needs to complete what we have already set in motion and, at the same time, be bold enough to plan the municipality we want to see in twenty years. To me, that is the real challenge ahead.

Signed: Isaí Blanco, mayor of La Oliva