jiminy’s blog

Pleno 28th December

nobody@vox.com(Jim Simpson) — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 18:49:27 +0100

Todays Pleno followed the usual routine. Turn up at 12 noon but noone has the keys to the new Town Hall so we then have to wait 10 minutes until Diego arrives with keys.

The first point was the official population, on the padron, at the 1st Jaunary 2007. I think they said it was 2,680.

The next two points were the agreement to allocate funds for Tourism, Commerce, Sport and authorising other expenditure.

Finally they went through all the different commissions again. I am not sure quite why and I didn't have time after the meeting to find out. It does appear though that I am still Concejale de Seguridadand and on the Commission de Medio Ambiente. Although no meeting of these commissions has yet taken place. I expect that to be in the New Year.

I thought that this would be the quickest Pleno so far with so few items on the list however, item 5 of the agenda was for questions and it became apparent that this was the opportunity for the opposition to have a go - which they tried to.

A number of questions were posed and the first was from the PP candidate directed to me and asking me what I knew about local crime and the Guardia Civil. Before I could answer Candido took the question and answered for me. Probably worried that with my poor command of the language I would make a mistake.

One thing which struck me as strange, from my understanding of what was said, was the naivety of the PSOE candidates, as it took Candido some time to convince them of what the Junta were actually doing to Zurgena. They did not believe the differing ways in which the Junta were dealing with the non PSOE councils.

Many other questions were posed, including what the Town Hall was doing about the Correos. It was explained to the council that we have been doing everything in our power with meetings in Madrid and Almeria but the Correos is just doing nothing to help the situation. When all the streets are named there will be nothing left that we can do to improve the situation.

The incorporated list of street names was attached to the agenda and, to my horror, I saw it still had a list of english places such as Manchester, Gillingham, Bromwich etc. I spoke to Salvatore and Candido and made sure they knew that the vast majority of expats living in the area would, in no way, wish to live on Calle Manchester etc. They agreed not to use any of the British place names. I hope they live up to their promise. The other lists of street names included Spanish writers, painters, scuptors, architects, scientists, provinces of Almeria, Provinces, European countries. illustrious Andalucian people, Natural Places of Andalucia, and Flowers.

So that is it for 2007. In summary I do not feel I have achieved much at all, so far. I have been able to convey what actions and feelings there are within the Town Hall and, what has been discussed at Pleno meetings, for the benefit of the ex pat community. I have also managed to take a few individuals issues forward but not many and I feel I should be able to do more.

I will be looking forward to the New Year when we will have our 3 new Police officers back and trained (expected February) and hope that I can have some input. I am also going to consider having a clinic like they do in the UK. But I am only going to do that if I feel I can take issues forward. They have helped me a few times lately so might be able to take that forward. The council has appointed a Spanish teacher for me, so I will have to try much harder with the language. My first lesson is to be on the 7th January..

So lets see what can be achieved in 2008!! Hopefully a Plan General!!

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Last Pleno of the Year

nobody@vox.com(Jim Simpson) — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 09:28:36 +0100

The last pleno for 2007 is to be held today at noon.

The agenda is very short and as I understand it includes the census figure for 1st January 2007 for the municipality, the financing for culture, tourism and sport.

Attached to the agenda is a list of potential street names for the municipality which still includes a list of English town names. I had already told Salvatore (the councillor responsible for this list) that the expats would not like to have streets named after english places. I will have to hope that I can get this changed today.

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Strike, PSOE and Guardia

nobody@vox.com(Jim Simpson) — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 16:45:09 +0100

I was in the Town Hall this morning to have a meeting with Candido and have shown below the information I gleaned from this meeting.

Firstly almost all the street signs have been ordered. They will be delivered after the holidays and Andreas has been tasked with helping people get to know the new street names and numbers. I offerred to assist him in that task when it is needed, as it will obviously take quite a bit of time. It is intended to number the streets in the normal way with odds on one side and even on the other.

I asked if they thought that this would assist the Correos and was told quite firmly that they did not expect it to make any difference. It was explained to me that the Correos is government run and they want to get rid of it into private hands. It is therefore in their interests to have it run on the cheap and they are not bothered about the lack of service. Why else would they close La Alfoquia Post Office, which has been in existence for 30 years, at a time when there are 50% more residents! At least the Town Hall will have done all in their power to make it easier for the Correos.

The situation with the Plan General is still not good. I asked about the delimitation plan. This is the plan which segregates land which can be used for urban land from that which cannot. It was explained to me that in December 2006 the full council (including 4 PSOE councillors) agreed within the norms of Spanish law a plan of delimitation for the land. In order for this to be legal and proper a set of documents has to be prepared including such things as technical and archeological papers. This was done as stage one of the process, stage 2 was the publication of the Plan for the public in case anyone wished to complain. This was done and left for an extra 4/5 days. Then on the day of the Pleno meeting to give final approval to the plan the leader of the PSOE party approached Candido and told him that not only would they not be voting for this plan but that they had also been instructed, on pain of consequences, not to assist in any way by the main party office in Almeria. Had they not taken this path we would not be in the situation we are now in. This issue is now before the court of Granada and it usually takes 5 years for that court to deal with cases. So assuming it was promptly referred then it would seem we may have to wait until 2010/1 for that case to be dealt with.

There was slightly better news on the other cases listed by the Junta and I was told that we expect 50% of cases to be heard in the next 2 months and it is believed that we will win them all.

I was given some other examples of the petty minded and vindictive way in which the Junta exercise power over the local councils which failed to return PSOE majorities. These included the fact that they have tried to stop the works being done in Zurgena so that over the Xmas period and into the New Year the town would be a mess. In order to keep us from making improvements to the town they keep making spurious requests for documents, bills etc anything which takes time and therefore prevents the offices of the council tackling things they want to.

Whilst I was there one of the Town Hall staff interupted our meeting to hand Candido a letter which was obviously from the Guardia Civil. He asked me jokingly whether I thought it would be a Xmas card or a summons. I suggested there was no way it would be a Xmas card. It did however turn out to be a quite nice earlty Xmas present as it was a notification that the Guardia office at La Alfoquia, which is currently a temporary satellite office and only manned for 8 hours a day, is to become a full time office with a commensurate increase in Guardia personnel. It gave no date for this but I am led to believe it will not be too long. Candido did say he was aware this was going to happen but could not inform anyone until receipt of this letter.

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Xmas Meeting

nobody@vox.com(Jim Simpson) — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:50:33 +0100

I was just informed of a party meeting to be held in our offices this evening at 6.30pm. Unfortunately I will be unable to go, so have asked Andreas to let me know what is decided.

It is basically to make decisions regarding the fiestas over Xmas and the three Kings day and what to do for the children.

I was also informed that I can commence my Spanish lessons at the hands of a lady called Andrea. Given the time of year I may as well leave it until the New Year to start.

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Pleno 5th December

nobody@vox.com(Jim Simpson) — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 19:29:11 +0100

My fourth Pleno meeting was held today. It was held in the new Ajuntamient,o which is a fine building, but we cannot take it over due to the many faults in the construction!! Where have we heard that before. The large front door has panels falling off, the roof leaks, there is damp throughout the building and so on. It transpires that although it is our building the Junta part finance it and therefore they say who shall build it!! Just the same as the new plaza, pavements and lighting. I asked Manolo our Deputry Mayor how long before the work on the streets would be completed and he shrugged his shoulders saying that it should be ready by Xmas but we are not holding our breath. There is a contractual time limit but they feel sure the contractor will fail to keep to it.

We agreed the minutes from the previous meeting and our replacement councillor Jose Parra Pardo was sworn in.

We then agreed the payment of funds to subsidise the guitar and keep fit classes. For my neighbours who enjoy the keep fit they are to recommence this week and will be on Mondays and Thursday alternating between Zurgena and La Alfoquia. For young people they will cost €15 but for OAPs only €5.

We discussed and agreed an approach to the appropriate department for grants to help us increase our use of solar energy so becoming more environmentally friendly. We want them to supply heating to schools and other public buildings.

It was then agreed that, whereas we currently share our council secretary, with Taberno having her one day a week, henceforth we will have her full time. I am informed that she is very highly competent in planning and urbanisation issues which should also help us.

We passed a resolution allowing for the continued use of our funds to help the poor in the area keep their houses in a habitable condition. This is something that has historically been done subect to conditions.

We then agreed the wording of our request to the Junta to resolve our issues around the PGOU. This letter includes reference to many legal facts and takes, as parts of the body of the letter, text from meetings between the Town Hall and the incumbent Political Party in the Junta going back to 1979. One of the points included was from 31st August 1987 where areas were agreed as Urban Neucleus. Now they (the Junta) say nothing like that was agreed. These areas included Barriadas de Zurgena, Fuente del Pino, Los Menchones, Palaces, La Alfoquia, El Cucador,Los Carasoles, Los Llanos y Almajalejo. There were many other points included in the proposed resolution which will be delivered this week to the Junta in the hope that we can make progress and return to a position of normality with regard to the issuing of licences etc. I have a copy of the letter and proposal which together run to 16 pages if anyone wishes to see it.

We then agreed to name all the streets in the municipality. The opposition said we could not do this whilst things were outstanding, however, Candido made it quite plain that we have the authority to do so and cited the instance of the opposition, when in power in the days of Franco, renamed all the streets to suit their political aims. I was told that at this moment they were looking at what names to use. Salvatore, who has this task in hand informed me that there are 223 streets to name. He had lists of Spanish painters, sculptors, flowers, regions etc which he proposed using but I then noticed they had a list of British towns and places and was asked my thoughts on this. I told them that that would go down like a lead ballooon and that not one expat to my knowledge would want his street to have an english name. They have agreed to remove that list! The final list is to be submitted to Almeria next week for ratification and the signs will then be ordered.

That concluded the business of the day and we adjourned to the bar for a few beers. During that time I discovered a few other points I did not know about. The first being that the main roads although maintained by the Town Hall remain the property of the Junta. That is the reason why the postmistress cannot cross the bridge becuase it is a road owned by the Junta and she is only insured for Town Hall roads so she has to use the rambla!!

The second was a point I raised about Fly tipping in the area which is a terrible disgrace. I was surprised to discover that most of the council members felt the same and when I asked why we did nothing about it I was told that it was the responsibility of the Junta's Departmente de Medio Ambiente but that they are too busy trying to discover breaches of planning and building regs than enforce the issue of rubbish. I asked what we can do about it and was told that if anyone saw a person fly tipping to take a picture on their mobiles and the Town Hall would institute the necessary denuncia.

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Next Pleno

nobody@vox.com(Jim Simpson) — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 19:38:29 +0100

I was in the Town Hall this morning and whilst there was informed thatwe are to have an extraordinary Pleno meeting this Wednesday at 12 noon.

After signing for the notification I was given the agenda for this meeting and it seems that a large proportion of our discussions are around the PGOU so I think it will be a very interesting meeting. I have been told by the secretary that it will be permissible for my transaltor to sit with me at future meetings so that will help me greatly.

The fiull agenda headings are as follows;

1. The minutes of the previous meeting. I have a full copy of these minutes if anyone is interested

2. Take possession of D Jose Parra Pardo. I believe this to mean that we are taking a new member on board to replace a lady Maria Isabel Segura Egea who to had to resign. Shame she was a lovely lady.

3. Regulating decree of rates by benefit of municipal services of musica and gymnastics.

4. Request to the Councillor of science and energy company of subventions to develop incentives.

5. Request of dissolution of grouping Secretary City councils Zurgena Taberno

6. Request inclusion of this municipality in the program of autonomic rehabilitation for year 2008

7. The naming of streets in the municipality.

The last item may well have been added as a result of our requests regarding the Postal Services.

Attached to the agenda is a lengthy (12 pages) which is all about the PGOU and I suspect that item 6 above will be where the discussions about this take place

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Updates

nobody@vox.com(Jim Simpson) — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 17:56:31 +0100

I called into the Town all today to chase up a few things. Candido had been away for most of last week and on returning on Monday started to clear the work but then had to go to Almeria again for discussion about the Plan General and this morning we spent filming for a Sky TV programme. So it was pretty hectic when I tried to get to see him but to give him his due he did make the time and I was able to ask ab out the following issues;

1. The situation with regard to the Correos. He explained that the Town Hall have done everything they can to help in this regard by providing banks of mailboxes for some of the developements but the Correos has not delivered to them. They continue to blame to the Town Hall which he said was unfair. The only issue the Town Hall can progress was the naming of streets and he stated his intention to have this ready by the next Pleno meeting before Xmas. I was also told that if I wanted further information about the situation with regard to the Correos to see Manolo (Deputy Mayor) who was dealing with this issue. I will endeavour to see Manolo in the next few days or week.

2. The problems in and around the Corner Bar in La Alfoquia of deliquency and drugs. I said that I felt this was a problem that needed to be tackled sooner rather than later before it gets out of hand. He informed me that he did have a method by which to tavckle this problem but due to shortages with some of the Police still on training courses he asked whether residents could monitor and report the situation as they found it to help the Police tackle it.

3. Spanish classes in Llanos del Peral. I was advised by Francisco that he was responsible for this and he would ask the lady who was supposed to be doing this and advise me by tomorrow. I had suggested that if they needed to know how many people would be interested in the classes I could get that information.

4. I made sure that he had the files for the two houses which we want on the mains water system. He informed me that that was being dealt with.

5. A few people had asked when the election signs would be taken down as they were an eyesore. I was advised this will be done in the next two weeks

6. I did mention that a number of areas were reporting street lights out of order but that I would leave that until next time as I was unsure about exactly which areas had this problem.

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What a mess

nobody@vox.com(Jim Simpson) — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 11:23:42 +0100

The problems with the Post Office seem to be getting worse.

I called in this morning as I have been waiting for some packages from Amazon for 2 weeks but no trace.

When I arrived there were a great number of people querying where their post was and it appears that about two weeks worth of mail has gone missing!

It appears that what happens to mail destined for La Alfoquia or Zurgena is that it is sorted at Huercal Overa and divided into mail to be delivered eg that which has an address on and mail to be collected from Zurgena P.O. eg addressed Lista de Correos. That which is to be delivered is given a van driving lady to deliver however she does not know the area!

There is a possibility that some may still be at the old Post Office in La Alfoquia but the Correos say that Ana Maria (the post lady at Zurgena) is not insured to drive to La Alfoquia.

To try and do something about this mess Ana Maria is going to spend some time between now and Saturday asking questions of other offices and getting La Alfoquia checked out. If she finds any post it will be available on Saturday morning at Zurgena P.O.

In relation to the future I am to speak with Candido at the other Town Hall staff in an effort to get street names and numbers progressed asap.

Mike Foulkes and I have agreed to collate information on the problem for the benefit of the Correos and the Town Hall.

Watch this space but don't expect miracles.

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Market & Water

nobody@vox.com(Jim Simpson) — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 12:15:26 +0100

Called into the Town Hall today to see what was happening and basically not a lot.

They have given permission for a Christmas street market to be held in La Alfoquia details to be announced.

I also took in the details as requested in an effort to help two families obtain mains water supply. These families had supplied me with duplicate copies of all the relevant documents for the houses and land and we hope that the responsible councillor can help resolve their issues and get them mains water.

I also took in a critical letter ( in Spanish) from a bilingual resident of Los Carasoles, who was complaining about the obstructive nauire of their politicians in resolving the planning issues of the district. This letter was recorded at the Town Hall for the attention of the PSOE party. It will be interesting to see if they respond!

Zurgena is having a refurbishment of the street furniture and ground surfaces. The old square is to be relaid wih block paving. The palm trees will remain. The pavements on all the main streets are to be relaid and tidied up.

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jiminy’s blog

Pleno 28th December

Last Pleno of the Year

Strike, PSOE and Guardia

Xmas Meeting

Pleno 5th December

Next Pleno

Updates

What a mess

More Correos Problems

Market & Water