Meeting with the Mayor

The minutes of the meeting were posted on here but I can't just find them for you 

Thankyou for trying Roland.

Not the actual minutes....

https://www.costacalidaforum.com/area/camposol-spain-300/

This is what I found postedKaren Plumley <[email protected]>

To:[email protected]

Sat, 11 Jan at 09:09

I rather enjoyed the meeting at Mariano’s this afternoon. At least for as long as I was there. Unfortunately, I had to leave before the end.
This is essentially a summary of what I heard.
I may have misunderstood some elements. I’m not infallible and I’m happy to be honestly corrected.

I was reasonably happy with most of what I heard.

Richard Moss opened the meeting as Chairman and asked that we all allow a peaceful meeting with no barracking. Up to the time that I left, that was the case.

Tom Finnegan gave an address in his typical firebrand style. Insisting that the people of Camposol needed various ills addressing etc. Basically, as described in the agenda he published. I didn’t actually disagree with any of it, but my own feeling was perhaps it was a tad unrealistic.
One of the points that Tom made, that I thought was important, related to ‘Habitation Certificates’. There are many houses on Camposol that do not have such certificates. Tom stated that, in law, all that was required for the issue of a ‘Habitation Certificate’ was, that the property was built, had essential services (water, electricity) etc and road access. He saw no reason why the issuing of outstanding certificates could not start next week. More on that further on.

The Mayor of Mazarron (Gaspar Miras Lorente) was gracious and I thought rather brave to turn up at the meeting. He’s a good speaker and I feel is very probably an honest man. I rather liked him. He spoke for quite a while, in Spanish, with our local Councillor Silvana Buxton acting as Interpreter. I thought she did a good job too and handled her role well.

The Mayor made the following points:

1.  He stated categorically that there was no intention by the Mazarron Council to enforce the establishment of an ‘Entity’ for the management of Camposol as a whole by the residents.

2.  We have all been deceived about the nature of the commitment we entered into when we bought our properties on Camposol. In signing for our deeds, we all agreed to maintain our local infrastructure (mostly private roads) via a local Board of Residents. It seems that one would be required for each Polygono. It is apparent that most roads within Polygonos are deemed to be ‘Private’. Apparently, the ‘Boards of Residents’ would not be compulsory, but we were told it is advisable.

3.  We were deceived by the Estate Agents & Solicitors that handled our purchases. We should all have been told what the full content of the Escrituras were, but we were not. At the very least, we should have been fully informed as to the potential obligation we were taking on. It seems that we have little recourse in Spain for this complete failure of service. Nonetheless, we entered into the purchase contracts and are now stuck with them as is.

4.  A budget of about 500,000 Euros (upper limit I understand) has been set aside for improvements to Camposol for 2020. This money may only be spent on facilities for which the Mazarron Council is responsible. Primarily public roads & lighting. Not, it should be noted, on roads / streets deemed to be ‘Private’. The Mayor stated quite clearly that it would be illegal for the Council to spend money on the ‘Private’ roads. More money will be available in 2021 and in years to come. Obviously, this is a step forward & better than we have seen in past years. The Mayor stated that in his opinion, street lighting should be the first priority. Invitations of bids for work are in process.

5.  The Police presence on Camposol will continue, but we can’t expect to have full time attendance yet. The local Force does not have enough resources. We should see an increased presence during the coming summer months and it is hoped that there will be a permanent presence on Camposol in 2021.

6.  Other projects are in train, for example a full Engineer check on the road bridge between Camposol B & Campsol C.

7.  There was no ‘Fin De Obras’ (Statement of Completion) for Camposol as a whole and such would be impossible. It seems that such documents are only issued by Architects for specific projects such as individual buildings, roads & bridges etc.

8.  That has been ‘work’ carried out with regard to ‘Habitation Certificate’ specifications. It was not at all clear to me what this ‘work’ consisted of. The Mayor then said that it should be possible for applications for certificates to be made by owners, in due course. The automatic issue of the certificates, as asked for by Tom Finnegan, was not offered.

This was all rather positive. The Mayor even stated quite clearly that Camposol (which I & my wife took to mean ALL of Camposol ) had been adopted by Mazarron Council. Otherwise various services, such as rubbish collection, could not have been provided. This was a surprise to me, as previous administrators have insisted that Camposol as a whole was not adopted. I thought that was positive too.

The Mayor then made a mistake and laid the ground for the snare that was to come.  He said that the original developer, Masa, had basically gone bust, into receivership. Leaving Camposol somewhat unfinished, but now in the hands on the then Mazarron Council. With the public and private roads in place and established as such in law. In essence, the private roads were finished, even though they weren’t. We’ll come back that shortly.
He went on to say, again, that Mazarron Council could not use public money to pay for the finishing & ongoing maintenance of the Camposol private roads, that would be illegal. He said, that is our responsibility as owners who signed for the Escrituras in place when we bought the properties.

After the Mayor’s lengthy speech, Linda Biggs challenged the Mayor with regard to his comments on Masa stopping work on Camposol due to bankruptcy. She asserted that is was a matter of record that the then Mazarron Council had removed Masa from the Camposol development project and had in effect taken it over and thus become the developer themselves. She said she had documentary evidence of this and showed the Mayor some paperwork, which she would not let him keep. Her position was that the then Mazarron Council and subsequent Councils had NOT completed the work on the Camposol roads, public or private and thus were still the responsibility of the current Council to sort out. It would not be illegal for the Council to use funds at its disposal for the completion of the roads, some of which don’t have a permanent hard surface, being just sand and gravel.
My own view is that a solution may need to be sought in the Law Courts.

It was at that point I had to leave. Maybe someone can add more detail.