CRA/Mayor Meeting 24th Feb 2010 Minutes
Mazarron Old Town Hall
Those Present :
Mayor Blaya Blaya
Jackie Galvez – Counciller (JG)
Ricardo Fernandez Puche – Council Lawyer (RP)
Greg Green – CRA Chairman (GG)
Joyce Stewart – CRA Vice Chairwoman(JS)
Les Crook – CRA Membership Secretary
John Daws – CRA
Bob Owen – CRA
Barrie Eveleigh – CRA (BE)
Enrique Olmos – Translator
The meeting commenced at 10am.
1. Now that the Council have officially announced that they are taking legal action against Masa to recover guarantees and the statement given to the CRA in the meeting with the Mayor of 4th Nov 2009, that the process for taking the funds was straight forward and could only be appealed against by Masa after the money was taken, can the Mayor give some idea of how long it will be before the Council adopt A Sector?
The Mayor started by going through the process that has occurred and his vision of the future:
i. The council have been holding back on taking action against Masa as they realise the cost of completing Camposol will be huge and they wanted Masa to pay for as much as possible.
ii. Having accepted that Masa are not going to do anything further the Council have begun the process of applying for the guarantees covering all sections of Camposol. Masa were informed by letter if this intent.
iii. In law Masa are allowed two months to reply with any objections. As usual Masa used the time allowed before answering. Their objections then have to be answered by the Council and another two months allowed for a reply. All this takes time.
iv. The Council will approach the banks holding the guarantees for payment. There are then two possibilities.
a) The bank pay the money to the Council over any objections by Masa. This might take as little as two months. Masa could appeal against payment and should they win the money would have to be repaid.
b) Masa can inform the banks prior to payment being made of their objections and the banks could hold on to the money pending a judgement. This might take a year.
v. When the money is received a full technical assessment will be undertaken to prioritise the work needed and the money used to complete as much of it as is possible. How to finance the rest will need to be discussed then.
BE asked what would happen if there was not enough money from the guarantees to complete the outstanding work, will the council still take over Camposol.
RP stated that it could not be taken over until this work was completed.
There then followed a discussion on who was responsible for making up the shortfall. The CRA position being that the Council (as stated in the Garrigues Report) was fully responsible and the Mayor saying that the residents of Camposol were responsible. This point was not finalised in the discussion.
GG stated that the process still had a long way to run and it would be sensible to start compiling plans and databases ready for the day when Camposol was accepted by the council. The Mayor showed no enthusiasm for this.
2. In the meeting with the Mayor on the 6th May 2009 the Mayor said that J Galvez was to head up a council group looking at the proposed management structure for Camposol. Could we please have an update as to the preferred management structure agreed by the Mayor and what steps are to be taken to put this in to practice?
The Mayor stated that it was still their preferred option that Camposol come under Council administration with an extra levy tax being paid for the additional costs required to maintain Camposol under the guidance of a Camposol management committee. To do this it would only take an amendment be approved by the Council Plenum. The Mayor preferred this option as the powers held by the Council would allow easier and more prompt collection of all taxes due.
GG asked if the Mayor saw this process as being for a whole Camposol. The Mayor supported by his lawyer said that they believed that the administration of such a system would be easier if the urbanization were broken down in to two areas. GG asked what would be the preferable break, to which the lawyer said in equal parts. GG asked the Mayor if it was his intention to divide Camposol into one containing A Sector and the other consisting of B, C & D Sectors. The Mayor would not commit himself at this stage but on being pushed for an answer the lawyer stated an equal split would be preferable.
3. Will the Mayor now commit himself to having a meeting with all groups concerned to negotiate the smooth adoption of Sector A and to a 5 year plan being put in to place to cover all work outstanding and day to day maintenance?
GG asked once again that after listening to everything said previously in the meeting and the reality that the Camposol infrastructure was deteriorating day by day then it was unacceptable not to start the process of preparing data bases, budgets etc.. From what had been said it would be at least two years before any additional Camposol taxes were agreed collected and available to maintain and improve Camposol. The Mayor again would not commit himself away from the process he had outlined earlier.
4. As requested by the Mayor in our meeting of 6th May 2009 the CRA have now contacted the Confederacion Hidrografica who state that they are unlikely to sign off the Revised Plan Parcial without the completion of the artificial rambla on D sector being agreed and completed. Now that the Mayor has acknowledged that Masa is not going to complete this work will the Mayor give his views on who will undertake and pay for this work to enable the Revised Plan Parcial for Sectors B, C & D to be signed off resulting in the Council being able to adopt these sectors?
The Council lawyer showed little concern for the discussions and details obtained by the CRA from their meeting with the Confederacion Hidrografica (CH) and said that he believed that the Plan Parcial could be signed off with the consent of the CH without the artificial rambla being completed but plan approved.
GG asked the lawyer why, if there were there no problem, why there at least 3 poligono’s without escrituras and owners worrying if they actually owned the villas they lived in. He also stated that the CH had mentioned the possibility of the rambla being restored to its original state which would obviously mean many villas being demolished. JD asked directly if there was any chance that his villa would be demolished. JG said no.
There was then a discussion between the Mayor, JG & the lawyer as they obviously disagreed with each other over what had been said.
It was agreed that the lawyer look further in to the situation and report back.
5. Over the last few weeks Mrs Galvez has been involved with the council engineer over the problems with the sewage pumping station on D Sector. The engineer reported that the system installed by Masa did not have the capability to deal with the levels of sewage created. Now that we are agreed that Masa is unlikely to correct this and with the upcoming high season of visitors to Camposol can the Mayor tell us what he can do to deal with this problem before it gets worse?
JG stated that the Council Engineer had visited the site and spoken with Masa and the problem with the sewage had now been resolved. GG confirmed that it had been some weeks since he had heard reports of any further problems.
JG also stated that the Council Engineer had also looked at the subsidence at the major bridge approach on B/C and was talking to Masa. GG stated that he had been in regular contact with Masa and had seen a Masa engineer at the site. If no work is started in the next week GG will contact Masa for an update. GG & JG stated that both engineers had reported that the problem was with the approach and the bridge itself was structurally sound. JG stated that if Masa did not carry out remedial work then the Council would undertake the work and bill Masa.
6. Could the Mayor confirm if Masa were now paying for rubbish collection?
GG stated that the residents of A, B, C & D were paying Masa for this service through their water bills.
The Mayor stated that the only money the Council were receiving directly for rubbish collection was from Sector A residents with Aqualia contracts. He said that, the last time he had asked, Masa was not paying for sectors B, C & D to the Council but he would request an update.
JS asked if the owners on B, C & D could pay directly to the Council for rubbish collection. The Mayor said that he would look in to it.
The meeting closed at 12pm.
Next meeting agreed for approximately 3 months time.
