Liam Kirkaldy (Reporter)
MORE than 100 Alcaucin residents and members of Save Our Homes Axarquia (SOHA) joined forces to demonstrate against the demands of the Junta de Andalucia to revoke the licences of 16 houses in the town.
The protesters marched on the main square after the Junta warned the town hall to revoke the licences – or face legal action.
The demo coincided with a special council meeting to discuss the Junta’s demands. Before the meeting Councillor Mario Blanke addressed the crowd gathered in the square outside the town hall.
Waving various documents in the air Blanke asked: “ Why does the Junta want to punish the homeowners and not the perpetrators of these crimes?
“ We’re not talking about houses that were built outside the law. Each and every one of the homes had and has all legally required permits.”
Residents then crowded into the packed council meeting room, where mayor Domingo Lozano, insisted that the town hall was legally obliged to approve the motion and revoke the licences. Councillor Blanke said that his conscience wouldn’t allow him to vote for the motion as it represented an injustice against innocent victims.
Although, the motion was carried, protesters vowed to continue their fight – even if it meant taking the battle outside of Spain.
Speaking afterwards the Chairman of SOHA, Philip Smalley, said “The decision of the Junta to push for the licences to be revoked beggars belief. These houses have stood for more than 10 years with all proper documentation, and all taxes paid.
“ Now the Junta wants the owners, most of whom are pensioners, to live in fear of demolition. These actions further sully the reputation of Spain and do nothing to alleviate the economic plight of Andalucia. Moreover, these actions are a clear violation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It may be that our fight will continue outside of Spain. “
Talk about shooting themselves in the foot. How is demolishing a load of houses (where people have been living for 10 years in many cases) going to help flog the thousands of empty properties they are desperate to get rid of? Demolition horror stories are all over the UK press and time and time again you read “don’t buy property in Spain” in the comment sections.
I know some of the people who have been affected and they all used reputable, English speaking, Spanish lawyers who carried out all the necessary checks and they had the correct building licences at the time of purchase. The Junta have pulled the rug from under their feet and retrospectively changed the law i.e. revoked their building licences. If, for some reason, these houses should never have been built, why has it taken 10 years to come to their attention? At best, they just look plain incompetent and incapable of creating and enforcing workable laws.
If the Junta had any sense, they would have a full amnesty immediately and then make sure the law is properly enforced thereafter. They have the power to legalise all these so called “illegal” houses but they choose not to. They sat back and did nothing to stop these houses being built for years and now, when the place is on its knees with frightening levels of unemployment and poverty, they have decided to declare these properties “illegal”. It’s this type of backward mentality that has made Andalucia the poorest region in Spain and it will continue to go further downhill unless something changes very quickly. Residential tourism was a very lucrative business with northern Europeans bringing huge sums of money to the area but the Junta have completely ruined it and treated people very badly in the process. The Junta de Andalucia are a complete basket case and need to be booted out of office asap. They should not be allowed to get away with this under any circumstances. It’s despicable and I hope they get taken to the cleaners by the European Court of Human Rights.
So even the leaders and ex-leaders of our wonderful Junta de Andalucia stand accused of monstrous crimes, with possibly some 1,300,000,000 euros safely tucked away in their Swiss and offshore bank accounts.
So what have these people done for Spain? They’ve robbed every single Spaniard and ex-pat in Andalucia. They’ve set up false companies, forged documents, destroyed evidence, tried to eliminate their trail of common theft. They are safe in their campo mansions, with expensive apartments in the city.
How are they going to divert attention away from their predicament, now they have been rumbled? By setting up a department specialising in escalating the “Demolish Pensioners homes at any cost” saga.
These crooked powers-that-be sit in their Junta offices, millions of Euros tucked away, corrupt from the top down, and pick the easiest of preys. No matter that many pensioners have lived in their only home for a decade or more – no problem, it’s Christmas, get the ball rolling, annul their licences.
It’s time to abolish regional governments and forcibly require the national government to abide by suitable EU directives – or lose EU funding of every kind.
Some sunshine, few tapas, the odd cerveza and all will be hunky-dory. Eh? Rog/Cacca/Mr.S.
Well said Antonio2 – don’t forget the majority of those whose houses could be demolished due to annulled licences cannot vote other than in local council elections so they really are truly the easiest prey.
Yes Rob,the fact that the owners cannot register a vote in protest would also figure in the Junta’s cowardly actions.
What amazes me is that Spaniards at one time were a proud people, yet their leaders stoop this low. I’m sure they cannot be representative of Spain.
Regarding ‘shooting themselves in the foot’, but they just do not care, it’s not their feet but those of the population in general. They have fat salaries coming in plus all the back-handers accumulated over the years. If things get too tough they have enough money to get out of Spain altogether to a luxury life elsewhere.
Rob and Antonio2 are spot on and I agree with everything they say. The Junta de Andalucia are not fit for purpose and need to be ousted immediately. They call themselves a “socialist” and “communist” coalition but there is nothing kind, caring or cuddly about these people, they are running a self serving dictatorship and are happy to leave pensioners homeless and/or without water or electricity.
They have turned Andalucia into a miserable, backward thinking, non go-ahead, business unfriendly, poverty stricken hole that most people want to leave. These fat, bloated, overpaid and utterly useless individuals have been creaming off large sums of money for themselves while giving pathetic little handouts to the electorate to win votes. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that the whole system is completely unsustainable and they are about to go bankrupt so their days are hopefully numbered.
So they decide to go out with a bang and up the ante on the house demolitions – terrific, I wonder if they’ve got any more great ideas like that stashed away? It does beg the question, why is the rest of Spain allowing these idiots to destroy their reputation? How much more damage are they going to be allowed to do before they get kicked out?
Right now, it is hard to see a way back for Andalucia. Very urgent action is need before it sinks completely.
Merry Christmas from the Junta. Not.