86 posts from 2008

Almeria Demo & Happy Baby

As many of you know my wife and I are back in the UK. We returned for the expected birth of our daughter's first child(our 3rd Grandchild), which was due on the 29th December. She was a clever girl and delivered her baby boy at 5.0am on 27th just 8 hours after we arrived. 6lb 12 ozs Liam Frank is a healthy happy baby and mother and baby both very well.

I needed to post about the upcoming demonstration on the 9th January in Almeria. I doubt if I will be able to make as we dont get back until the day. I have copied below an item composed by Lenox Napier who has lived here for over 30 years and sums it up quite well. I have also copied details of the press release for anyone who can support the demonstration please make contact with the various contacts included below.

A year has passed since the Priors' home in Vera was demolished. Since then,
nothing has been done (and less accomplished). Thousands of other
'illegal' houses in eastern Almería are under threat from a callous
administration in Seville and its offices in Almería. In the past few years,
the international community resident in Spain has fallen victim to improper
demolitions, arbitrary rules and implementation, property mortgage scams,
'land grab', property fraud, corruption and thievery. We have been
repeatedly tricked by some of the region's town halls, lawyers, realtors,
promoters and notaries.
Spain's reputation is in tatters internationally because the authorities
have failed to act coherently.
It's time to make the call: the Priors will have been living in a garage
without water and electricity for a year on January 9th 2009. They have been
offered no compensation and no apology.
It's time to show support and outrage.

 

PEACEFUL PROTEST MARCH IN ALMERIA CITY

FRIDAY 9TH JANUARY 2009  
 

Stop Corruption.  Justice Now.  Support us.  We bought in good faith.  Save our homes.  Stop planning and real estate abuse.  Regularisation now.  Justice for the Priors.  Transparency and Citizen Participation. 

The organisers, residents in the province of Almeria, are holding a peaceful protest: (1) against real estate and planning corruption and insecurity and to ask for justice; (2) to ask for solutions and the protection of purchasers in good faith, some of which, are subject to the threat of demolition, and many of which do not have proper water and electricity; (3) to seek transparency and citizen participation in the regularisation process; (4) against proposed charges the Junta seeks to levy within the regularisation process, and which should be met by those responsible, and to ensure this is guaranteed in writing; (5) to ask for justice for the Prior family, victims of alleged planning irregularities, whose house was demolished over a year ago, and who have not yet seen any sign of redress.  

Congregation and March starting point: Puerta de Purchena from 12:00noon.  After an opening speech, the march will begin at 1:00pm, heading down Rambla del Obispo Orbera for five blocks, turning right on Av de Federico Garcia Lorca, then turning left after about six blocks at Calle Hermanos Machado, stopping in front of the provincial office of Housing and Territorial Planning where speeches will be made beginning 2:00pm.    

Transportation: Those who wish to travel in chartered buses for a nominal fee should immediately contact: 

Mojácar, Turre, Los Gallardos, etc.         info@aulan.es or 950069558

Almanzora Valley    info@almanzora-au.org

Cantoria     petermacgechan@hotmail.com

                                    brucehobday@gmail.com 
 

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New Ayuntameinto & Extensions Advice

I called into the Town Hall today for a couple of reasons and discovered that the first part of the move to the new Ayuntamiento has taken place and poor Andreas is already in there working but with no heating, files all over the place, no internet connections and many other problems. So I would advise anyone with issues to leave it until after Xmas to let things settle down.


One of the reasons I called in was to clarify what advice we could give to people wishing to undertake any sort of extension or pool installations which we are not now issuing licences for. I was told that there is an agreement between the Junta and Town Hall for the Town Hall not to allow/permit any building to take place. This includes pools or home extensions. They say that if anyone, does undertake such work, they run the risk of having a stop order placed on the work or even possibly being fined. They say that they may be able to issue licences again in 12 months or so! I suggest then it is an individuals choice to run the risk or not.

For those interested in the NHW property marking initiative I have now heard back from the Guardia Civil in Almeria and I am to meet with a Captain Barroso in January date and time to be confirmed. That is pleasing.

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Usual Delay

I called into the Town Hall yesterday and today to try and see Salvador but on both occasions he was out and about compiling his inventory.


I managed to get hold of him on the phone and asked if I could (on behalf of the many who have contacted me) have sight of the inventory. He explained that he had not completed it yet. I told him that I was going back to the UK on the 26th December and I wanted to be able to report back to people before it was submitted to the Junta.

He informed me that the full inventory would not be sent off before the middle of January and I would have an opportunity to examine it before it was sent. I asked if that could cause a problem as we were supposed to submit it by the 31st December. He explained that that would not cause any problem as the submission date was flexible. 

So even the most important things get delayed! I, kind of, suspected any target date would not be definitive.

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Inventory Queries & Injury

Firstly many thanks to the people who saw me come a cropper on Tuesday morning and who offered various forms of help. I basically, badly, twisted my ankle when returning from my morning walk and fell rather heavily. Fortunately I do not think anything is broken though I have not been walking much since. I do hope to be more mobile by Monday when I will endeavour to see Salvador as soon as I can. 


My list is quite lengthy (approaching one hundred properties) so I hope he will be patient with me!

As soon as I get an answer I will post on here and also try to email each individual.

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Pleno, Investigation Progress & Polizia Local

This morning we had our first Pleno for nearly 2 months and the main purpose was to authorise a change of use of some of the funds we, as a council had available to help us pay wages.


It transpired that none of the Town hall employees had been paid for November due to our current account used for paying those wages had run dry. We did however have a surplus from 2007 and the motion before the council was to agree to change the use of this surplus to allow us to pay all the wages. I was amazed to see that the op[position voted against all this. They could have voted against the Mayor getting his money, but to vote against giving the general workers their money seemed to be electoral suicide. Manolo had a lengthy debate with the lady fro  PSOE trying to get her to  see sense but he failled.

Having attended to that business we adjourned as usual to the bar, which was for a cold market day very full. 

Firstly I wanted to find out how this situation could arise and discovered that because no party had had a majority since 2005 no proper budget had been set which allowed for the natural increase in costs and the massive reduction in income. It had become so bad that Andreas could not pay his mortgage last month due to his pay not going in and if we had not all attended today to vote (only 4 PA councillors to 3 opposition) as we did the opposition could have stopped us being able to make the payments which now will go into their accounts by 7.0pm this evening.

I was then privy to a conversation which gave me an insight into Candido's mind. Yesterday when we were discussing various issues Manolo had said we should start recovering funds due to the council from those who were in receipt of social payment. Apparently in Spain certain less well off people are given grants but these grants are means tested and they are required to pay a share and it seems many had not done so and that was another area where we were not receiving monies which we should. Manolo was saying we should recover this and Candido did not want to discuss it. Today he apologised to Manolo but said he felt sad that we had had to discuss recovering money from the poorer people! I suspect that he does not like making hard decisions particularly when it might effect the poorer people but we need to ensue fairness to allow us to do other things.

I then asked about the investigation being conducted by the Guardia Civil into Candido, Manolo etc. I was told that nothing else had occurred. I asked when the investigation would be completed. They said they did not know. I said that in the UK a suspect would only be held on bail for a few months before either being charged or released without charge. They told me that was not the case in Spain and such an investigation could go on for years with the suspect continually marked by the allegation but that there was nothing they could do about it. They did say that they have been informed, as has Anthonio of New Horizons, that they can collect the papers taken from the Town hall any time they like. Candido was reluctant to do this unless he had the opportunity to examine the documents thoroughly to make sure nothing as missing before they recovered them to the Town Hall. I can understand this attitude.

I then thought I should push the issue of getting us all to start working more effectively so asked when we were going to move into the new Town hall. Manolo confirmed that he had net with the telephone engineers who were moving the phone lines over and we hoped to get the papers moved over early next week. I think once we get into the new building I will do a surgery once  week for an hour or two.

I explained that I was beginning to feel very guilty at doing nothing with the Polizia Local despite that being my brief. I suggested that to help me identify how to get the best out of them we needed to understand exactly what they did each day. I proposed giving each officer a note book and asking them to record everything they did each day fo a two week period and that after that we could examine their records and structure their working ways and practices to best fit the needs of the community. Candido agreed but said we would have to wait until the New Year due to holidays etc. So I have agreed to source suitable note books, and advice on how the officers should complete them, so that we can issue them in the first week in January. It was made plin to me theat the Police officers do not feel they are supported by the Town hall with the old clapped out car they have, the lack of equipment and the lack of guidance. I said that it was my intention to address these issues if I could. I think I should be able to argue for funding given the number of votes that we, as part of the community, provided to the party at the last election.  

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Marathon Meeting

I went into the Town Hall today at 9.0am for the meeting between our councillors and the technical guy (that is the architect) who has the task of compiling our Plan General. I was introduced to him and it was pointed out to me that he was one of the individuals who was arrested earlier in the year with our Mayor and Deputy Mayor, but that he had been originally appointed by the PSOE and that his arrest was considered a mistake by the others.


He proceeded to show us all the maps which the Junta were using, as the basis of agreeing a Plan General for our area. The first, and most optimistic fact, was that, whereas some twelve months ago they did not even accept the existence of any developement outside of Zurgena, they had now agreed that there were urban nuclei in the areas of La Alfoquia, Palaces, Carasoles, Cucador, Llanos del Peral and Los Menchones. These maps showed 4 different coloured areas, firstly there was dark brown areas, light brown areas, white areas with houses and white areas without any construction. It was explained to me that this was a first draught of a plan after 15 meetings  between the Town Hall and the Junta and that it was very much a  first draught with alterations still to be made. The architect explained how they had reached this point and what the figures were in relation to the square meterage allowed within each urbanizable area and the proportion available for future developement which was 40% of the original urban area. The dark brown areas were very small areas which the Junta agreed were now, and would be, for the basis of the plan urban land (primarily anywhere that had very old houses in), the light brown areas were those which could be included as part of the urban area within the Plan General and the white areas with houses were areas which could in the future be included in future plans and were referred to as 'sectorial land'. The rest would become protected land. As we went through examination of these maps it became apparent that some areas which were not yet included in the basic urban area should be. Such as a part of La Alfoquia where all infrastructure was installed and there was sufficient green area to allow for the new law. The new law, which the junta imposed was one which required a number of conditions to be met by the developer such as 10% of the build area to be green land e.g open spaces. We identified a number of areas where this was the case and the architect asked that these be listed for him to assist his discussions.

I asked about a number of areas which had not been included in the maps such as Barranco de los Pinos, Los Labores etc and I was told that they were not yet included in the basic urban areas as they could not be, due to the fact that there were no old established villages in these areas. But that this would not preclude the Town Hall from including them in the areas decreed as sectorial for future permission within the Plan for the Sub Delegation. For example when a plan was agreed, areas which already had houses could and would be included in each future years plans until all were incorporated. It was said that it was the intention to ensure that every house within Zurgena area was urbanised by the time of the next election in May 2011. I was also asked to bear in mind that even though this was the basis of the plan someone within the junta could say no!

I then asked what the difference would be between an house on urban land and one on sectorial land. I was told that a house on urban land can have its licence of first occupation and would be fully, from the date of the agreed plan, legal. That a house on sectorial land, such as mine, could be sold as it would be on the PGOU but that it would not have a licence of 1st occupation (however I do have one!). So my understanding is that those of us with houses on what may be defined as sectorial land are at an accepted stage prior to full legalisation. I believe this process will apply to all other municipalities as well. 

We also have to understand that there are two processes being undertaken at the moment, firstly the meetings between the Town Hall and the Junta to agree a basis for a plan general and secondly the compilation of the inventory. To ensure that a comprehensive list is available for the assistance for the developement of these plans.

We then, after an hour and a half had a meeting with the Council's solicitor who strongly advised that we agree a basic plan with the Junta be it this small one, which we could apply to change in future or make a swift application to increase the areas we maintain are urban. One way or another he strongly advised we reach a basic agreement asap.

I hope this is not causing too much confusion and as usual, if I have failled to properly explain anything you need to know, just drop me an email. It does take some understanding! 

We then had a party meeting at which Manolo, quite rightly in my opinion, criticised his colleagues for not getting things dealt with on the council and whilst he agreed that we had massive difficulties we needed to be doing what we were elected to do. There was a number of heated discussions around what we could and could not, be doing.  We then conducted a review of our manifesto and where we were with each item on it. Many could not be completed, because of finance, but we did agree that there was one thing we could complete. There was choice between providing a gymnnasium/bowling green and a Tanatorium. It was thought that the residents most needed and wanted a Tanatorio. It was agreed to progress this and to look at a number of sites where the land would be quite cheap. We also agreed to try and get into the new Ajuntamiento asap and in fact Manolo had an appointment to get the telephones switched over by Monday next!! We will see. 

I was also told that some of the road plans would get completed in the near future (your guess is as good as mine) one in Los Llanos, Los Menchones and the road from Palaces to Cucador. 

Before we split up I asked when we could get together again to start getting things done and sharing the load which Candido was shouldering and I was told that there is to be a brief Pleno tomorrow morning at 11.0am and we could get together after that. I need that meeting because I have a load of issues about the Polizia Local, which is supposed to be my responsibility and I have been unable to implement any changes yet.

We talked about loads of other issues but none of those reached any conclusions so I have not included them. The meeting concluded at 1.40pm!


 

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Meeting with Men from Almeria

I have been trying to see Candido the past few days about a couple of issues but he has been variously engaged in meetings, the last one being yesterday, with officials from Almeria. 


I tried again today to see him, but was told that he was too busy, however, I was told that there was to be a meeting with the technical people from Almeria about the Plan General tomorrow morning at 9.0am and I am invited to attend. That should be interesting.

9.0am!! the things I do! 

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One Small Step

It seems that two of my recent requests have been answered. Firstly they have filled a couple of the potholes in Cucador, but not all!


Secondly the request that I made for the person who wished to start a language school at Llanos del Peral has been granted and the necessary paperwork completed. So I thought great we are getting somewhere. I was then telephoned by Andreas to say that this person would give me free lessons to assist my work with the Council until I took a telephone call from another person, who has been conducting language classes in her own home for the past year. It transpires that this person asked both Candido and Francisco for permission to do exactly the same 20 months ago and completed the necessary town hall form and never heard anything! 

This seems extremely unfair so I told this person that I would  try and discuss it next week with either Candido or Francisco. She also informed me that the request covered a number of issues that it was felt that the old village hall could be used for including various communal activities. I will try and find a way forward.

Why is nothing easy? 

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Rearranged AGM and Pig Farm

Firstly our AGM had to be cancelled on Monday night due to electricity power cuts. We have managed to rearrange for the same location, next Monday (the 1st December) at the same time 6.0pm. Hope to see plenty of support there at the municipal theatre in Zurgena.


Secondly a number of residents of Cuesta de los Pinos contacted me regarding their suspicions that Anthonio (New Horizon Villas) was about to set up a Pig farm near the stables at the top of the developement as some work had taken place and a lorry laod of small piglets had been seen to be delivered. This would obviously give rise to noise and smells and they were concerned as to whether there was any action they could take.

I called into New Horizons office to see if I could get any answers and, although Anthonio was not there, I discussed it with Anna whose immediate reaction was to laugh. She said she did not believe Anthonio would be thinking of that. She agreed to telephone him and when she did Anthonio explained that he had had a load of suckling pigs delivered which were for his extended family. Which is what Anna thought may be the case. It being quite common in Spain for families to buy in bulk for family celebrations.

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NWS AGM

Just a reminder for those interested in Neighbourhood Watch, we, the Zurgena and district NWS are holding our 3rd AGM tomorrow night at the Municipal Theatre in Zurgena at 6.0pm. 


The municipal theatre is up the street from the village square in Zurgena. If you walk up the road away from the square, with the bank on your left, it is one block up on the left.

We do have some quite interesting information for members and non members. I do not anticipate the meeting should last any longer than an hour.

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