The new PGOU was approved on Friday by COTUA, the Andalucía Territorial Planning Commission and is thought to bring order back to the town where more than 18,000 properties have been built outside the regulations. However, the decision about what will happen to the, built on land destined for other uses, generally because they are on public coastal land, remains in court’s hands. More specifically, these are the 297 homes in Banana Beach, 50 in Golf Rio Real, 30 in Torrevigía and another 50 in urbanisations outside the plan, all of them having seen their licence to build negated by the courts.
The courts will have to decide whether these properties –mainly homes- will be demolished as they remain outside the plan. In theory the courts will consider the interests of all involved parties.
By now, several residents groups, including the residents of Banana Beach, have announced their purpose to appeal against the PGOU. Their defence includes placing a criminal complaint against the PP and PSOE councillors who voted for the plan last July, accusing them of perversion of the course of justice. They also consider that Juan Espadas, the regional councillor for housing and town planning in the Junta should be charged in the same way because there are other developments in the same situation which have now been accepted into the plan.
It remains therefore, despite the approval of the new PGOU, in the hands of judges whether there are widespread demolitions, if compensation is ordered in such cases, who is deemed responsible for the payment of such compensation, or if a greater flexibility is found in the search for a legally acceptable way to keep the owner-occupied properties standing.
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)