Following my inability to see Candido last week, I met up with him today to go over your (and my) many issues, which were outstanding, the main ones of which are listed below.
Firstly I asked if we had heard any result from the last Court case (which was heard 2 weeks ago). Candido stated that they expected to hear the ruling the week after easter. He also told me that the authorities were trying to lump another case, into those covered by the Operation Costurero ones. At this point Salvadore jumped in and said that the press were referring to a case involving 252 houses, when in fact the case actually mentioned, was in regard to a piece of land with a hole in it (near the pool bar in La Alfoquia). The other case has (as was mentioned in an earlier blog been postponed until June).
I then asked what stage we were at in getting the WiFi back online. Cuesta de los Pinos has been offline for nearly a month and part of La Alfoquia for 3 months. Candido explained that he had been hoping to get a meeting with an internet engineer from Almeria, who he had made contact with, but that this had not happened but would do this coming Friday. I can only apologise for the delays in getting this sorted. He is hopeful that this engineer will agree to take on a contract to maintain the whole network for the future. I will chase up next week.
The next and, for me, the most important issue, was the work necessary to repair, reinstate or temporarily make good, the sewerage treatment works for Cuesta de los Pinos. Candido explained that it was, for him, also a major issue, that we need to consider. He has an undertaking with a company through the Diputacion to repair the pipework and install a smaller but appropriate processor (because to replace like for like would be too expensive for us at the moment) before the summer. He also said we need to fight to have this budgeted for, in our 2013 budget negotiations due soon, to ensure it does progress. I stressed that, for me, when it is an issue which impacts on public health, we must tackle it asap. He agreed. He then made various phone calls to Kiko and other councillors to arrange a meeting for our party, at Salvadores house tomorrow afternoon, at which each councillor can argue for his/her most pressing budgetary claim, prior to our meeting with PP. He also confirmed that people living in Cuesta de los Pinos should not be paying maintenance fees to New Horizons for the sewerage plant. I told him that no one would obviously be paying this year. I also said that should the TH install any replacement plant that requires maintenance most residents would happily pay a reasonable fee until Galasa can take it over and include in the water bills, if that helps in forward planing.
I then raised the issue of the road surface between Los Llanos and Avenida de Poetas at Los Llanos which is becoming seriously degraded. He said he was fully aware of the situation regarding this road and that it presented a small difficulty in that there is water running below the surface of this piece of road and it necessitates cutting the tarmac, digging down and infilling before relaying with tarmac. He has a gang working on resurfacing roads in the Zurgena area and, whilst he has no budget for this work, and has already committed the Town Hall to over 30,000 euros worth of work, which has not been budgeted for, he is looking at getting this gang to attend to this road defect and a few others (including Calle Finlandia and Calle Irlanda), if he can in the next weeks. This gang, he hopes will attend to other roads which are suffering but it is more a question of how far we can stretch things
Candido asked me to ensure that people knew we (the TH of Zurgena) have not yet received a penny from the regional authorities towards the making good of all the damage from the storm of 28th September. We have been making progress only through good will of local constructors and the hopes of getting funding in the future.
I also made some progress regarding the problem raised by a resident in Los Llanos re a localised sewerage problem there which I will communicate directly and likewise on behalf of another resident who wished to carry out some work outside their property.
I did not push the issue of our street plans although they are nearly ready to start rolling out. I have quotes for the cases but not sure they are cheap enough, so will tackle that after easter.
I had another resident calling at the TH and asking for a form certifying "fuera de ordenacion". This has been alluded to before on the blog, as some estate agents, are asking for this before acting on a sale of a property. As I had been told before, basically this is not something which any councillor or Town Hall is going to issue as it would effectively guarantee that a property is not and could not be included in a Plan General as on urban or urbanisable land. In other words illegal! Neither of the councillors I have spoken to understand why or for what purpose an agent would be asking for this for as it would effectively block any potential sale and no official would sign such a document for fear of being guilty themselves. All properties in Zurgena are included in the PGOU which is and has been for some time being negotiated so it would also be a lie to state the asked for fact.
So I will attend our pre budget discussion meeting with my PA colleagues at Salvadores house tomorrow afternoon and make my feelings known about the budgetary priorities and once we have agreed them and taken them to our coalition partners for approval I will report back on here.
Finally please accept my apologies if you stop to speak to me in the mornings and I am less than chatty. When I am on my walk/jog, I usually run against the clock and sometimes I may be seconds out of beating my PB. and being a competitive animal I hate then spoiling my chances of a best time.
Firstly I asked if we had heard any result from the last Court case (which was heard 2 weeks ago). Candido stated that they expected to hear the ruling the week after easter. He also told me that the authorities were trying to lump another case, into those covered by the Operation Costurero ones. At this point Salvadore jumped in and said that the press were referring to a case involving 252 houses, when in fact the case actually mentioned, was in regard to a piece of land with a hole in it (near the pool bar in La Alfoquia). The other case has (as was mentioned in an earlier blog been postponed until June).
I then asked what stage we were at in getting the WiFi back online. Cuesta de los Pinos has been offline for nearly a month and part of La Alfoquia for 3 months. Candido explained that he had been hoping to get a meeting with an internet engineer from Almeria, who he had made contact with, but that this had not happened but would do this coming Friday. I can only apologise for the delays in getting this sorted. He is hopeful that this engineer will agree to take on a contract to maintain the whole network for the future. I will chase up next week.
The next and, for me, the most important issue, was the work necessary to repair, reinstate or temporarily make good, the sewerage treatment works for Cuesta de los Pinos. Candido explained that it was, for him, also a major issue, that we need to consider. He has an undertaking with a company through the Diputacion to repair the pipework and install a smaller but appropriate processor (because to replace like for like would be too expensive for us at the moment) before the summer. He also said we need to fight to have this budgeted for, in our 2013 budget negotiations due soon, to ensure it does progress. I stressed that, for me, when it is an issue which impacts on public health, we must tackle it asap. He agreed. He then made various phone calls to Kiko and other councillors to arrange a meeting for our party, at Salvadores house tomorrow afternoon, at which each councillor can argue for his/her most pressing budgetary claim, prior to our meeting with PP. He also confirmed that people living in Cuesta de los Pinos should not be paying maintenance fees to New Horizons for the sewerage plant. I told him that no one would obviously be paying this year. I also said that should the TH install any replacement plant that requires maintenance most residents would happily pay a reasonable fee until Galasa can take it over and include in the water bills, if that helps in forward planing.
I then raised the issue of the road surface between Los Llanos and Avenida de Poetas at Los Llanos which is becoming seriously degraded. He said he was fully aware of the situation regarding this road and that it presented a small difficulty in that there is water running below the surface of this piece of road and it necessitates cutting the tarmac, digging down and infilling before relaying with tarmac. He has a gang working on resurfacing roads in the Zurgena area and, whilst he has no budget for this work, and has already committed the Town Hall to over 30,000 euros worth of work, which has not been budgeted for, he is looking at getting this gang to attend to this road defect and a few others (including Calle Finlandia and Calle Irlanda), if he can in the next weeks. This gang, he hopes will attend to other roads which are suffering but it is more a question of how far we can stretch things
Candido asked me to ensure that people knew we (the TH of Zurgena) have not yet received a penny from the regional authorities towards the making good of all the damage from the storm of 28th September. We have been making progress only through good will of local constructors and the hopes of getting funding in the future.
I also made some progress regarding the problem raised by a resident in Los Llanos re a localised sewerage problem there which I will communicate directly and likewise on behalf of another resident who wished to carry out some work outside their property.
I did not push the issue of our street plans although they are nearly ready to start rolling out. I have quotes for the cases but not sure they are cheap enough, so will tackle that after easter.
I had another resident calling at the TH and asking for a form certifying "fuera de ordenacion". This has been alluded to before on the blog, as some estate agents, are asking for this before acting on a sale of a property. As I had been told before, basically this is not something which any councillor or Town Hall is going to issue as it would effectively guarantee that a property is not and could not be included in a Plan General as on urban or urbanisable land. In other words illegal! Neither of the councillors I have spoken to understand why or for what purpose an agent would be asking for this for as it would effectively block any potential sale and no official would sign such a document for fear of being guilty themselves. All properties in Zurgena are included in the PGOU which is and has been for some time being negotiated so it would also be a lie to state the asked for fact.
So I will attend our pre budget discussion meeting with my PA colleagues at Salvadores house tomorrow afternoon and make my feelings known about the budgetary priorities and once we have agreed them and taken them to our coalition partners for approval I will report back on here.
Finally please accept my apologies if you stop to speak to me in the mornings and I am less than chatty. When I am on my walk/jog, I usually run against the clock and sometimes I may be seconds out of beating my PB. and being a competitive animal I hate then spoiling my chances of a best time.
No comments:
Post a Comment