END OF YEAR REPORT. December 2011

[Roger]

END OF YEAR REPORT
December 2011
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The first 6 months has been a very stressful time in the Town Hall. We took over a virtually non existent administration; the General Secretary (the senior full time official) did not give us correct information, and then walked out. It took until September to get a replacement, who has then had to get to grips with the backlog of administration.
The financial and urban situation was a disaster, much worse than had been reported before the election.
Inevitably this has caused stress within the government team of councillors, particularly since we come from very different cultures and experiences. What has held us together is our united determination to keep our election promises to sort out the problems of our town for the benefit of all the residents.
We now feel that we have come out the other side of the fog and can see a clear way forward. However we have no doubt that there is still a mountain to climb to solve all the problems.

URBAN PLAN
As has been reported, our proposal for a fast track solution has been rejected. However we have had discussions with the Urban Planning Department in Almeria and have an agreed process in writing for the way to solve the urban planning situation.
The first part of the process is a new urban plan to define the urban boundaries within each barriada, centred on the original urban nuclei, based on the original 2001 plan. This will make 85% of the new houses in Arboleas fully urban.
This plan must define all the infrastructure, existing and proposed. The only significant infrastructure missing is the provision of sewage treatment plants.
This plan (innovacion 13) is almost complete and the financial and technical reports and agreements are well advanced.

The second part of the process (innovacion 14) will be to include those rustic houses on the edge of the urban nuclei within the urban plan, thus classifying them as urban. This accounts for almost all the houses built on rustic land. This is a very simple plan because the sewage infrastructure for these areas are the same as those for the areas in innovacion 13.

Each of these plans will be presented as one plan, not the 11 plans which were prepared by the previous administration, and which were rejected. The sewage infrastructure plan is well advanced and the source of finance identified. The work does not have to be completed prior to approval of the plans.

We cannot give a timescale for final approval because it is outside the power of the Town Council, but we have very good relations with the Urban Planning Department in Almeria and they have stated that they want to help us solve the problem as quickly as possible.
The only doubt is whether innovacion 14 has to go to Seville.  We believe it should not have to because most of the land has already been approved as suitable for urbanisation by the various departments in Seville.

We will be holding a series of public meetings at the end of January/early February. This timescale will give time for everyone to return from the festive break and will give us time to present plans.

URBAN PROBLEMS
We have collected a mountain of information about people's urban problems and have had many discussions with builders. The problems are immense and will take a long time to sort out, and will require a lot of cooperation from everyone.
These are generally contractual problems between clients and builders, but the Town Council is determined to intervene to protect the interests of all the clients. Of course there is a limit to what we can do. However we have already addressed problems of court embargos on land because of debts against builders. We know of issues of mortgages held by builders, and of land, urban and rustic, for which the original owner has not been paid.
In the New Year we will start discussions with groups of people to start the process to solve these problems, in advance of the urban plans, because it will take some time to reach legal and financial agreements.

WATER CONTRACTS
Mike, Deputy Mayor responsible for urban works, has surveyed the problems of temporary water connections and missing water infrastructure, and is collecting information from people. We have had discussions with Galasa and with builders. Our policy is that the house owner does not have to pay for completing any infrastructure or for the connection fee. This is legally the responsibility of the builder and we are making arrangements to ensure this happens, directly or indirectly.
Those people who paid for connection (other than the 95 euros contract fee) before the election should deduct this from any money they will finally pay the builder.



CATASTRAL REGISTRATION
We inherited an agreement with a company in Malaga to register all the property in Arboleas. This has caused us a lot of problems and a lot of delay. We were promised that 1230 properties were in process of registration. After a lot of delay and high level discussions we are now receiving information, albeit a bit at a time. We have so far received 7 lots, a total of 500 registrations, and have been promised the rest by the end of December. However these include many Spanish cortijos and quite a few plots in the name of the builder (although they have houses on them). Current estimates are that less than 50% of new houses will be registered by this company, and the information we have does not include addresses.
There is therefore a lot of work we have to do to check on the information, to check and confirm addresses, and to start registration of the missing houses.
I will be publishing information in January of those people who are being registered, and asking people to come into the Town Hall to confirm addresses, to correct errors, and for those not on the list to bring in their documents so that we can complete the process of registration.
We will of course face a major problem when the bills come through in April, because there is no provision in the system for buzon numbers.

FINANCIAL PROBLEMS
We inherited a debt of 3 million euros, and it took us several months to discover this because of the lack of information in the Town Hall. We have been working to avoid having to repay grants which have not been handled correctly, and have re-structured other debts. We have been submitting grant applications in order to improve the financial situation, and with Council Tax (IBI) starting to come in, 2012 should be a bit better. However it will take us several years to get the council finances in order.

ENVIRONMENTS ISSUES
We know that there are many environmental problems in the barriadas. Rubbish to clean up, road repairs and improvements, and verges and spare land to be landscaped. At the present time the financial situation does not allow us to make a start on this work, but we are discussing plans to make a start next year.

HEALTH CENTRE
We have made changes to the location of the Health Centre, to make it more accessible, particularly for people with mobility problems, and to reduce the cost. This is being funded by the Junta, but the financial agreement required the Council to advance fund the stages in excess of 500,000 euros, which is clearly impossible.
We have re-negotiated the financing to enable the project to proceed.

NEW NURSERY
This is the multi coloured building near the Museum. We inherited a contract for the construction, which is funded by the Junta. We also inherited a contract in which the running of the nursery would be in the hands of a private consortium, and in which the Town Council will make good any financial deficit if the take up of places falls significantly below the planned 84 places. The construction has to be completed in December, and we have stated that we will re-negotiate the operating contact, which would have been a financial disaster to the Council.

POSTAL PROBLEMS
A problem we do not know how to solve. Official documents (traffic fines, council tax bills) are sent to the official address as shown in the Padron, not to buzon addresses. This makes it difficult to the post man to deliver. The Padron computer system is an official Diputacion system and does not have provision for buzon addresses.
This also leaves people unsure whether there are debts, such as basuras and road tax, which they have not received.
When people re-registered their new addresses I was running the Help Desk in the Town Hall, and produced a form which included the postal address. Unfortunately this information has not been entered onto a data base to make it accessible.
This problem is a great nuisance to people and we are investigating a solution.
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Councillors are available every day in the Town Hall to help people with their problems. In particular Danny is available to help with translation, and we can help you with the wide range if problems which people have. However we would ask people to wait for the public meetings on the urban plan for a detailed update of the situation.
Please remember we have a lot of other technical and clerical work to do, as well as being available for advice.
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Roger Done, Deputy Mayor, responsible for public information and consultation, and urban problems.
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