Marbella will put its economic strength on the table to the Junta de Andalucía by declaring to be a municipality with a large population, a consideration reserved for the capitals of provinces and municipalities of more than 75,000 inhabitants and which have special economic or historical characteristics. The city council has completed an explanatory report including detailed information about the town’s economic, social, historical and cultural particulars aiming to articulate the inclusion of Marbella in the new legal and organizational regime of municipalities of large populations according to the Andalucía’s Parliament Law 2/2008 10th December last year. The request will be submitted to the Junta de Andalucía who in turn has a maximum term of two months to make its answer public through parliament.
“It is against common sense and reason that Marbella is not considered a municipality having a large population” explained Mr. Felix Romero the municipal spokesman. Accompanied by the director of the municipal formation, organization and quality department (UGESCAL) Javier Garcia: “The statistics reflect an unquestionable reality on the relevance and relative importance of Marbella within the set of Andalucian municipalities. It is not comprehensible that Marbella has still not been considered as a large city by the Junta in spite of contributing 10% of the gross production ratio (PIB) of the region, having a real population far beyond the one registered and being an international tourist attraction” stressed Romero.
Eighth in population numbers.
One of the factors taken into account by the city council at the time of taking the step is based on its level of population. According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), for 2008, the latest data available, 130,549 inhabitants are already registered in Marbella, it being the eighth largest Andalucian city in terms of population, behind Cadiz and Huelva.
Nevertheless, as the director of UGESCAL declared, the real population of the municipality “is much higher” than the one reflected by the official numbers. In his opinion there is an evident dysfunction between the official population (the one registered) and the real one that Romero fixed at 343.000 inhabitants according to a study of different parameters such as rubbish removal generated.
(Diario Sur newspaper)
Telefonica S.A. has been once more elected for a period ending on 31st of December 2010 as the mandatory lender of the Universal Telephonic Service, defined as the set of services with a determined quality at a reasonable price, whose benefit is guaranteed as a right for all the end users of residential homes no matter their geographic location. These services include a connection to the public network from a fixed location. Telefónica’s obligatory services referred to above, must therefore grant anyone the following:
a) The ability to receive and make telephone calls of national and international scope to geographic and non geographic numbers.
b) To establish fax communications, at least of fax group III in accordance with the pertinent recommendations of series T of the UIT-T.
c) To establish data communications at a speed sufficient enough to access the internet in a functional form.
According to the law, Telefónica will have to satisfy each reasonable request for an initial connection to the fixed public network in a maximum term of 60 days from the date of request. In the case of not being able to make the mentioned provision in this term, except for force majeure or other causes attributable to the applicant, Telefónica will have to compensate the applicant automatically and it will exempt payment from a number of monthly payments equivalent to the amount of months or fraction of which this term has been surpassed.
( From Ministry Order ITC/3808/2008, de 23 de December).