Attendants
Ms. Natalia Santos Mena, Mayor; Mr. Francisco Javier José López, First Deputy Mayor; and Mr. Víctor Hugo Rodríguez Palma, Area of Economy and Finance and representative of the City Council in the Governing Council of the EUC Costa Esuri.
D. Juan Almagro Fernández-Blanco, D. Miguel Anguiano, Dña. Marina Martínez Domínguez
Agenda
Position of the City Council regarding fires:
The Council is working on a prevention plan, together with the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, which is hoped will become operational in early 2022.
They will be working with Municipal technicians and *INFOCA to determine which are the urbanisations that need the protection of a Forestry technician and provision of anti-fire measures.
Regarding the easement area that surrounds the Golf Course (of which the Council was unaware), they will speak with the owners of the Golf Course.
Although the private plots are not the main focus of concern, owners of these private plots are still responsible for keeping them free of flammable material. However, the forest area is the responsibility of the Environment Delegation, not the Municipality.
At the beginning of 2022, notifications will be sent to all the owners of plots on Esuri, requesting that they be cleared of excessive growth as this is potential fuel for any fire. If owners do not respond, the Council will carry out the works and will bill the owners for the cost. The east Golf Course is included in this section.
The Council claims to have the census of all the owners, which will be verified.
These measures will be taken sufficiently in advance for the relevant actions to be carried out in the months of May and June 2022, before the summer season.
An investigation has been opened through the Delegation of the Environment and the forest guards. They are not aware that anything is being investigated by the local police.
Damages will be claimed through INFOCA. In principle, reforestation is not planned, since most of what was burned belonged to a private farm. However, the affected soil will be investigated for its subsequent treatment and recovery.
*The acronym “INFOCA” is the Fire Prevention and Extinction Plan of Andalusia.
Execution of guarantees.
The Council alleges that the highway contract was awarded by the previous administration and that they are not responsible for its terms. The works have not yet been received, so for the moment there is no proposal for the reception of our roads by the Council.
We raised the possibility that the savings residents were informed of two years ago which would occur from the execution of the work on the roads, could be used to implement a parking area on Plot S1, near the Lomas shopping centre. Since it is a plot for social uses, it could be used to develop it, with a civic centre, a parking area, etc. This proposal has already been presented to Urban Planning by CERA.
They tell us that, as of today, it is unknown if there has been any saving between the amount of the award and the amount initially planned for that purpose, but that they will speak with the Controller. They say that it is difficult for the Council to keep the money in the accounts, so if there is a surplus, what the residents want to do with it will be done.
Regarding green areas, the commitment is that the works will be put out to tender in September 2021, although the tender specifications for them are not yet ready. We ask that the residents be consulted in advance to see if, instead of five small areas, it would be better to work on fewer areas, but with more amenities.
With regard to the expansion of the treatment plant and the sanitation system, we are told that there is a request from the Council to the Provincial Council for European Union funds to be used. If this were the case, it would avoid spending the guarantee money, which would, in turn, be used on other projects in Costa Esuri.
The Council emphasises that the guarantee money is for Costa Esuri – it cannot be used for anything else, because it is a legal requirement.
Comunication with Esuri
The Mayor recognises the need for information with the residents to be fluid and for there to be regular communication with CERA and through the Community Presidents. She agrees to have a meeting with the residents to report on the status of the issues previously discussed and to have a closer contact. This meeting will take place in September.
Bus service
Finally, we informed the Council of the situation with the bus, specifically that the bus did not go to the Urbanisation of Las Colinas. They told us that they will immediately check the route and make a change for the bus to stop at the entrance of the said Urbanisation. At the same time, we asked them to communicate and report timing schedules and stops on the route.
Good to see a more professional level of response from the Town Hall and hope they maintain it.
I note the section re the guarantees doesn’t mention amounts and wonder if it would be possible to determine what the Town Hall thinks they are? If the application to the EU is successful all to the good but it would be of interest to know the amount(s) involved. Hope all is well with all you Folks and thank you for your efforts in keeping the Bureaucracy under control. (:-)
If it is correct that the “council” have a census of all plot owners could this be passed to the EUC so that everyone can pay the fees and the additional revenue used to the benefit of the urbanisation.