ANDALUCÍA
President Griñán announced in Torrox last week that the decree allowing legalisation will be passed on January 10th
24.12.11 - 14:52 -
Junta president José Antonio Griñán announced the date in Torrox.
Tuesday January 10th. The date has been set for the approval of the long-awaited decree that will move thousands of homes built illegally in Andalucía to the right side of the law. It is estimated that as many as 50,000 properties in the province of Malaga and 300,000 in Andalucía are in an illegal situation. President of the Junta José Antonio Griñán made the announcement last week at the 30th annual Migas Festival held in Torrox.
Barely three months away from the regional elections in which the PSOE risk losing the last remaining Socialist controlled region in Spain, the decree puts an end to more than seven years of legal uncertainty, since the new regional planning law (LOUA) came into force in 2003 to curb uncontrolled construction in rural areas.
Rather than achieving this aim, however, what the new law has done is to put numerous mayors in court accused of planning crimes, some of whom have been convicted and even given prison sentences.
Now the new decree is practically an amnesty, a term that the regional councillor Josefina Cruz refuses to use. When she announced the new ruling back in March she described it as “a step to recognise a reality that is out there and that needs a solution, albeit with conditions”.
The complexity of the issue, and the Junta’s about-turn in just seven years, leaves local mayors plagued with doubts. After all, it is the town halls that will have to deal with the practicalities of the new situation, in the midst of an economic crisis and with no material resources to carry out the new inspection process required. Then there is the question of what happens to the mayors who have already been convicted of planning offences and those whose cases are still going through the courts.
Griñán admitted on Sunday that the issue was “very complex”. “It affects the interests of numerous parties, and requires sound reports, because we’re talking about thousands and thousands of homes that are to be legalised” said the president, adding that the Junta has to be sure “that the legalisation does not go against general interests, or against the interests of the environment or personal safety, and once this has been established it will be approved”.
Counting up
So far the Junta has insisted on the need to draw up an inventory of all the constructions on rural non-urbanisable land. However in the province of Malaga this has only been carried out in the Axarquía district, where 12,760 illegal properties were identified, of which 11,025 could be legalised.
Meanwhile it is estimated that there are another 15,000 homes in this situation in the Guadalhorce valley, three thousand in Estepona and Mijas, 1,600 in the Serranía de Ronda, 1,500 in Antequera and Marbella and 1,174 in the municipality of Malaga. The approval of the decree has been welcomed by associations of property owners such as the Asociación Provincial de Viviendas Irregulares and SOHA (Save Our Homes Axarquía), while it has been criticised by environmentalist groups such as Gena.
Mayors give opinions on decree
The Mayors of Marbella and Estepona have cautiously welcomed the announcement made last Sunday by the Junta de Andalucía’s president, José Antonio Griñán, that the regional government is to adopt a decree in January to legalise many of the properties built on ‘non-developable, rural land’.
Ángeles Muñoz, Mayor of Marbella, said that she would study the measure but that she thought the Junta was “lacking respect” by initiating this decree now, after Marbella had already made “tough alterations” to its General Urban Plan.
Referring to the forthcoming regional elections, Muñoz said that Griñán was “acting more like a candidate than the president”, adding the step was “not credible” and that if it were, it should have been taken outside the election period.
For his part, the Mayor of Estepona, José María García Urbano noted that this hasty approval “sounds like electioneering.” He added: “We’ll wait and see what the decree says.”
