PGOU, 1st Run of Bus Service and Medieval Market

Please find below a sequence of events relative to our work on the PGOU since April 2014.

1. 28th April 2014 Plenary session of the Council opened the administrative procedure for public consultation of the plan and to seek any objections or requests from any organisations or administrative entities or any affected public interest.
   
2. 29th April 2014 Communication of the plan to surrounding Town Halls in order that they may make any representations or requirements known.
   
3. 6th May until 6th June 2014 Period of public examination or comment on the plans. During this period 79 allegations were presented to the Town Hall.
   
4. Between 30th July and 14th October 2014 proposed resolutions to the allegations or amendments were signed by the editing architect of the PGOU Mr Francisco Salvador Granados and incorporated into the plan.
   
5. The modifications to the plan as above were not substantial since and according to jurisprudence these allegations/representations would not substantially alter the overall, model of the plan.
   
6. 21st October 2014 Plenary session of the council was held to resolve these matters and provisionally approve the document of the PGOU of the municipality.
   
7. 16th December 2014 Binding sectoral (departmental) reports were requested from the Junta and the following were received on the dates shown 15th December area of fomentation from the Deputation. 6th April 2015 General Director Telecommunications and technology, 24th March Delegation of Culture Junta de Andalucia, 24th March Delegate of environment (water) Junta de Andalusia, 25th March <Report from the Territorial Delegation of environment Junta da Andalucia.
   
8. 17th February 2015 an extraordinary Plenary meeting of the council was held to approve the an appendix to the plan incorporating the above (7) reports and the content of the appendix and modifications to the document again did not substantially alter the model of the plan or the public interest which is protected by the delegations etc who submitted their reports.
   
9. After the approval of the document (the appendix referred to in 8 above) no new sectorial reports were requested by the Junta as no new modifications were introduced which could impact the structural ordinance nor the public interest.
   
10. Following the submission of the approval of this appendix an unfavourable report was received from the the Consejeria de Medio Ambiente regarding water issues and this was forwarded to the editing team for corrections.
    
11. 23rd October 2015 the document appendix 2 of the memorandum of the PGOU for Zurgena was received to address these issues. Drafted by the architect D Francisco Salvador for its incorporation to the file and remittal back to the Consejeria de Medio Ambiente y Ordinacion del Territorio (Council of the environment and ordination of the territory). The content of the appendix and the modifications carried out again do not substantially affect the decisions within the structural ordination but they do alter the protected interests of the public by the administrative entities and organisations which issued the reports and therefore the request of the reports from those organisations which could be affected is considered necessary
    
12. 30th October 2015 the appendix 2 is provisionally approved and sent on the same day to the delegation of the environment and ordinance of the territory for its approval.
    

These are the bureaucratic steps that have been taken over the past year and a half. To summarise, the plans have been going through these processes for a long time but eventually it came down to about 18 objections based of water issues e.g. location of waste pipe or supply pipes. We have proposed (after discussions with our technical architect Francisco Salvador Granados) that each of these water points should be considered as favourable but conditional. Meaning that although we accept the points we are proposing ways that we can address these points. By doing it this way we hope to shorten the time necessary for the acceptance of the general plan. We now can only sit and wait for their response which has to be within 5 months of the submission date (that was why we were frantically meeting before the end of October). We

hope and expect the Junta to accept our plan in this format as it is how other areas have progressed their plans. As you can see from the above steps we have complied with and resubmitted our plans as quickly as possible at each stage of this latest series of requests. We now can only hope that no further objections or issues are raised (we do not think there can be) and that it is passed to the commission at the earliest opportunity. We will continue to press for that to be the case.

We ran the new bus service last Friday round the villages and into Zurgena and then today up to the market at Huercal Overa. Only 6 passengers last Friday but that included 3 elderly Spanish ladies from Palaces.Today I felt the timings were better and I am hopeful that more will make use of it otherwise we will have to discontinue it, which would be a shame as so many had previously intimated that they wanted such a service.

The annual Medieval Market will again be held in the Plaza del Olmo in Zurgena Pueblo on the 13th, 14th and 15th November. Pop along and enjoy the artisan crafts and the atmosphere is the old village square. Oh and spend some money.