This article is from Typically Spanish

Trampolin Hills investors hold protest outside company offices in Murcia

They want the company owners imprisoned for fraud amounting to 60 million Euro

Some 100 or so of the hundreds of clients affected by the collapse of the Trampolin Hills golf resort in Campos del Río gathered at the site on Saturday in a protest to demand their money back and for those responsible to be sent to prison. The first of the more than 2,500 units planned at the resort were sold four years ago, but none were ever completed.

It’s affected clients in Spain, the UK and Ireland, amongst other countries, and it’s understood from La Opinión de Murcia that a group of those affected have made a formal request in writing to a court in Mula to ask that the two owners – Antonio Martínez and Rafael Aguilera – be imprisoned for fraud amounting to 60 million €. Joaquín Guzmán, a lawyer who represents many of the investors concerned, said he believes the two owners could attempt to flee Spain or to destroy evidence.

The company is now in administration, but sources at the Grupo Trampolín told the newspaper that they believe the project will still go ahead. They said a way will be sought to pay those who want their money back, but have proposed to some of the purchasers the idea of forming a cooperative to allow the urbanisation to be built. There was no indication of the response to their proposal.

Trampolín Hills was recently fined the amount of 350,000 € for failing to put in place a bank guarantee for their investors. Such a guarantee is required under Spanish law to cover refunds for unfinished properties.

This article is from the Leader
The councillor for Urbanism in Catral, Antonio Bellido, assured the press last Tuesday that he cannot understand the stand that the 1,300 owners of illegal homes in Catral have adopted. He says he has offered them the possibility of regularising their situation. However the neighbours are unwilling to accept this and led a protest last Wednesday to the Town Hall.
They do not want to have to pay for the high costs of building pavements, electric cabling, water pipes etc. The houses were originally built on non-urban land. They had no licenses, and the Town Hall has now offered to grant the licences for the houses, but the residents will have to meet certain conditions. As they are unwilling to do so, the situation has reaches stalemate. The home owners, who are mainly British, believe they paid for all these things in the first instance and are unwilling to pay again.
Catral Town Hall have explained that they have to carry out a technical study, and will have to charge each home owner 1% of the value of their home, to be able to carry this out. It is not a fine or a tax. Bellido went on to say that they are giving these home owners exceptional treatment, and those who fail to accept the conditions will have to face the consequences. He believes that they are not all against the Town hall’s proposal.
It is hard to understand how 1,300 houses could have been built in the middle of farmland seven years ago, and still not have been provided with basic services such as electricity and water. Almost all the waste water from these homes goes into the ground.
The Partido Popular Mayor of Catral, Aurelio Albero, spoke to the protesting home owners in the town on Wednesday, but told them, in a slightly angry tone, that the charges being made for services and infrastructure for the illegally built properties would not be reduced by a single Euro.
He appeared to be offended that the residents were calling the Town Hall corrupt, (according to one of the banners being waved in the air,) when they were doing their utmost to avoid the houses being pulled down. He said the town hall had chosen to help the residents humanely, rather than turning their back on the problems his government had inherited upon coming to power. He said the easiest solution for them would have been to let the houses be demolished.
Some 150 residents, many of them British, marched on the Catral Ayuntamiento under the banner ‘Victims of Town Planning Corruption’, contending that they find themselves as victims, having purchased their properties in good faith after being told that the builders had obtained all the correct licences. They blame both the local Town Hall and the regional Valencia Government as the developments continued after a 2002 report from Seprona, the environmental wing of the Guardia Civil.
The Mayor, Aurelio Albero, was joined at the doors of the Ayuntamiento by the Councillor for Town Planning, Antonio Bellido. The Mayor demanded an explanation from the protestors and contended that the Town Hall was also a victim from what had gone on as they had lost 80 million € in income.
The Mayor denied rumours that power and water supplies were to be cut to the properties, but insisted that all owners had to pay 1% of the value of the property ‘as do all citizens’. In addition, the illegal homes will have a septic tank and a 10% fine on the cost of that will be imposed, although that should be met by the promoters of the illegal properties.

Some two months ago the CRA took part in the filming of a documentary for Swiss Television. The programme was part of a series on Environmental Issues prior to the Copenhagen Summit. The subject of this documentary was the shortage of water in Spain and how developers were constructing golf courses and building houses ignoring water shortages and the impact on natural water courses.

Camposol was used within the documentary because of the problems with villas built on the rambla on Sector D.

The documentary is currently being shown all over the world on TV5 a Swiss French speaking channel.

For those without access to this channel the programme can be viewed on the link below :

http://www.tsr.ch/tsr/index.html?siteSect=370501&sid=11440436&cKey=1259789240000

(Unfortunately it is not possible to click on the link and go straight to the page so highlight link, copy and paste to internet bar)

The section or the programme showing Camposol can be found about three quarters of the way through the broadcast.