ARCHIVED - Camposol residents attend open meeting with Mazarron Council
ARCHIVED ARTICLE -
Mazarrón Council hold open meeting with Camposol residents to discuss current issues and future plans for the urbanisation
Mazarrón Council held an open meeting with Camposol residents on February 8. Representing the Council were Mazarrón Mayor, Gaspar Miras, Councillor for Town planning and infrastructure, Ginés Campillo, Councillor for the Environment and Personnel, Plácida Gómez, Councillor for Citizen Participation and districts, José María Moreno and Councillor for Camposol and International relations, Silvana Buxton who acted as translator. The council team were also joined by Mazarrón Council’s Town planning lawyer Juan Ceferino.
Mayor Gaspar Miras opened the meeting by thanking all those present for attending, an audience of well over 100, and went on to say that although Camposol had been neglected and abandoned by previous councils for nearly 20 years the current council over their 3 years in power were trying to change that by providing services and initiate other long-term projects.
The Mayor highlighted the children’s playground on A sector, football pitch on D sector and pavement repairs and wheelchair access around the commercial centres on sectors A and B. He did admit, however, that progress had been slow with the Covid pandemic causing budgets and projects to be rescheduled or modified, but pointed out that progress had not stopped.
He went on to point out that other important issues had been initiated:
- Street lighting: In the next few months, work will be starting on addressing the problem for the whole municipality, including Camposol, where the initial priority would be Avenida de los Covachos.
- Asphalting the dual carriageway on Sectors C and D: In March the tender for the drafting of the project to asphalt the dual carriageway should be finalised after legal challenges had delayed the contract for nearly a year. After the project is drawn up the process can advance to the next stage of putting the actual work out to tender.
- Re-routing of the Rambla de los Aznares: Also in March, the next meeting of the Roundtable is being scheduled to include the regional government (CARM), rivers authority (CHS), Mazarrón Council and resident’s association.
The Mayor also added that the work and projects had to follow the legal and proper process or could be challenged and delayed or even stopped. He continued that the Councillor for Town Planning and Infrastructure had in recent days been talking with Town Hall lawyers and had drafted a report which had been published. He then invited the Councillor for Town planning and infrastructure to address the meeting.
The Councillor for Town Planning and Infrastructure, Gines Campillo, stated that he was determined to address Camposol’s problems as part of the Mazarrón municipality, going on to say that many issues needed to be resolved but could not be progressed without changes to the urbanisation’s status, highlighting properties built on the Rambla and those with turistico designation among other irregularities that can only be regularised and legalised by modifications to the urban plan.
The Councillor then set out a 4-step programme:
- Modifications to the urban plan to reflect the current reality and situation, which would be the longest part of the programme.
- Changes to the current system which leaves the urbanisation in administrative limbo to a legal and official position according to regional planning laws.
- As the urbanisation was left unfinished by the Developer (Grupo MASA), it would be beneficial to install Mazarrón Council as Developer in order to process urban projects left incomplete, including the rambla issue on sector D and permission from the CHS for a new bridge between sectors B and C.
- Utilisation of the bank guarantees (2.9 million euros). Guidance from Town Hall lawyers indicates that the change of system will reduce administrative obstacles.
The Councillor added that progress on the various projects including the asphalting of Avenida de los Covachos will be published on the Mazarrón Council website, he then invited the Council’s Town planning lawyer Juan Ceferino to explain the legal situation.
Sr Ceferino explained that the use of the bank guarantees was complicated after Grupo MASA abandoned the urbanisation and had to be dismissed as a private Developer. To simplify and legalise the situation would require the Council taking on the role as a public developer.
Although this will take time, technical reports are already in progress and when a definitive course of action is devised all Camposol residents will be sent an information letter and asking them to submit any suggestions to the planned proposal. He added that the amount recovered in bank guarantees was not enough to carry out all the work required to complete the urbanisation but some projects could be started.
The Mayor then addressed the meeting saying although it may seem that not many projects had been completed over the last 3 years, a lot of unseen work – some administrative – has gone into groundwork to facilitate future plans and projects and he asked residents not to listen to misinformation and disinformation. He especially had in mind myths such as the rumour that properties built on the rambla would be demolished and that licences of first occupation will never be available. He added that claims that the rambla redirection will never happen and that the new bridge between B and C sector will never be built are also false.
The Mayor and Councillor for Town planning explained that some of the work that had gone unnoticed included 1.3 million euros spent on completing the urbanisation sewer system and 1.5 million euros spent on upgrading the sewage treatment plant.
The meeting was then opened to questions from the audience. Various concerns were raised, including crime and policing. The Mayor answered saying that the street lights on the public roads should be completed by the end of 2023, which would deter some crime and also that, although early in this council’s legislature Camposol was included in the regular police patrol roster, in 2020 Covid measures meant police officers were assigned new duties. In 2021, twelve new police officers were recruited and their 2 years of training would soon be complete so extra patrols (including Camposol) would begin.
The question of street lighting and maintenance on internal polígono roads was also raised. Both the Mayor and the Councillor for Town Planning clarified that the internal polígono roads did not come under the council’s jurisdiction and Camposol was planned and built according to the Horizontal Property Act. As such, the internal roads were common hold property of all the householders in the polígono concerned and would usually be managed by a Community of Owners with each household within the polígono contributing an amount in line with the quota percentage in their deeds. The council had no responsibility for them and could not spend public funds on them.
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