Fed up with potholes? Alhaurin el Grande gives residents a chance to speak up and shape their town

Fed up with potholes, worn-out road markings, endless roadworks or development decisions that seem to happen without asking the people who live there? Residents of Alhaurin el Grande now have a chance to have their say on how the town develops over the coming years.

Alhaurin el Grande Council has opened public participation on the preliminary version of its new Urban Development Plan, known as the Plan de Ordenación Urbana (POU). Anyone interested can submit suggestions and objections until September 15.

Your chance to influence Alhaurin el Grande

Rather than simply grumbling about local roads, housing, traffic or how neighbourhoods develop, residents can now put their views on paper and have them considered as part of the planning process.

The council says the new POU is intended to tackle long-standing urban planning problems affecting residents while creating a framework for future development. Issues within existing planning rules have left some urban areas and properties difficult to develop, with the new plan intended to address some of these problems.

Public involvement is a formal part of the process, rather than a town-wide vote on individual projects. However, it gives residents, property owners, businesses, associations and other interested groups a direct opportunity to suggest changes before the planning document progresses further.

How to have your say

Anyone in the area of Alhaurin el Grande wanting to get involved can consult the POU documentation and download the relevant suggestion and objection form through the council’s dedicated planning website. Completed forms can be submitted through the General Registry or electronically via the council’s online headquarters.

September 15 is the deadline, so anyone with views about roads, development, land use, housing or other planning issues has a limited window to make them known.

The council says the document has already been approved at the council level and sent to the Junta de Andalucia as part of its administrative processing. The next stages will follow before the new planning framework can finally be approved.

Alhaurin el Grande is therefore offering residents something many people regularly ask for: not simply another opportunity to complain after decisions have been made, but a chance to put forward ideas while those decisions are still being shaped.

For anyone who has ever muttered about a pothole, build-ups of rubbish, questioned a road layout or wondered why a particular piece of land cannot be developed, this could be the moment to turn that frustration into a formal suggestion.