Zurgena: PSOE criticise current council for lack of progress on town plan

[Maura_Hillen]

Obviously there is an election coming but the comments about the sticking point on the PGOU for Zurgena are valid. You cannot have fully urban land (Suelo urbano consolidado) without services. Even the PSOE council in Arboleas couldn't achieve this. Yet, the mayor of Zurgena continues to insist that he will settle for nothing less.


http://www.teleprensa.es/almeria-noticia-256753-26quot3BZurgena-est26aacute3B-viendo-mermadas-sus-posibilidades-de-desarrollo-por-el-alcalde26quot3B2C-dice-el-PSOE.html

ZURGENA .- The secretary general of the PSOE in Zurgena, María José Aliaga, held a meeting with the Provincial Delegate for Public Works and Housing of the Government of Andalusia, Ana Vinuesa, to discuss the status of the town plan (PGOU).

Aliaga has stated that in respect of this meeting that "The surprising thing about this meeting was understanding that in two years, Zurgena council has shown such little interest in moving this plan forward" "

The general secretary of the PSOE in Zurgena said that "the Mayor and his government team continue to proposed that the land should be declared urban when this would involve extending the nucleus of the town by four times its current size and include scattered areas which have no possibility of accessing public services. "

Designation of Land
María José Aliaga has explained that " we learned in this meeting that the principal obstacle to progress for the PGOU in Zurgena is the definition of consolidated urban land (suelo urbano consolidado) and unconsolidated urban land (suelo urbano no consolidado) in the specific percentages to satisfy the current planning laws. The difference between these two apparently similar concepts is significant when the meaning in translated into euros. "

In this sense, the secretary of the Socialists in Zurgena has clarified that "consolidated urban land should have as a minimum urban services such as road access, water supply, sanitation and low voltage electricity supply, or be in a position to do so, while unconsolidated urban land does not have access to the services named above and it would therefore be the responsibility of the developer to bear the costs to provide them".

The Socialist secretary further explained that "this means that Zurgena Council needs to decide which of its developers are assigned consolidated urban land, where the promoter does not have to spend another euro on providing services and which promoter is assigned unconsolidated urban land, where the promoter will have to invest greatly in service provision."

María José Aliaga also criticized that "while the Mayor of Zurgena is dithering to see which finger to cut so it doesn't hurt; our town is falling light years behind other towns in the Comarca del Almanzora in terms of development. The lack of industrial land is leading businessmen and entrepreneurs in Zurgena move to surrounding municipalities to do business.

Similarly, the legal uncertainty in Zurgena is encouraging many of our citizens to live elsewhere.

Lack of interest
On the other hand, the general secretary of the PSOE in Zurgena has revealed that "last October 18 a meeting was held Macael between the delegate of Public Works of the Junta de Andalucía, its technicians and the mayors of the eight municipalities of the region of Almanzora with a view to addressing the houses outside of urban planning. Candido Trabalon the Mayor of Zurgena, again demonstrated his total lack of interest and political irresponsibility by not attending this meeting which was convened with the rest of the districts mayors. "

María José Aliaga finally emphasized that "municipalities such as Lubrin, Roquetas de Mar and El Ejido are in the final stages of approving their  PGOU, other towns such as Arboleas, Cantoria and Albanchez  are in an advanced stage and maintain a constant dialogue with the Juntas technicians to progress things as fast as possible. In contrast Zurgena is losing its chance of developing because of the negligence of the Mayor and his council who show every day that they do not have a political plan for the advancement of our town and its residents".