Opinion and Comment

Wednesday, 15 February 2012 12:12

Written by Editor

Name supplied                                         Chiclana de la Frontera

I have belatedly read your article regarding the proposed plan of Jose Antonio Griñan of the Junta de Andalucia to legalise a large number of 'illegal' properties in Andalucia in the coming year.

The number generally referred to is in the region of 60,000 although I would anticipate it will be far less than this at the final count as PSOE are well-known to exaggerate and greatly inflate these figures for their own political advantage –  not that PP are any better.  The reason I write is to ask if you know, or indeed have any interest in knowing what has occurred and is continuing to occur in Chiclana de la Frontera with regard to the re-classification of land and property problems as I have seen no mention of it?

The head of the Urbanismo department of Chiclana Town Council, Andres Nuñez a lawyer who is paid a great deal of money to make urbanistic decisions as the PP councillor for Urbanismo decided he was unable to make one regarding the re-classification of land of Chiclana, especially as he had only discussed the matter with his own colleagues of the PP party and had not had an open debate within the council chambers with members of other political parties, the federations or Neighbourhood Associations.

As the PGOU of Chiclana has been thrown out by the 'Tribunal Supremo' – The Supreme Court – Chiclana has reverted to the Normas Sustantivas of 1987 and Nuñez then gave the land     re-classification  'problem' to the Junta de Andalucia to sort out, which they did in agreement with Nuñez as head of Urbanismo de Chiclana. Unfortunately much of the land previously classified as in areas due to be urbanised now find that they have been changed to white land.These areas contain many hundreds if not thousands of homes that if necessary can now be demolished. Our own property is one such and has also been included in a flood-plain –incredibly, it sits on the top of a hill, is one of the highest situations around and if it floods the remanider of Chiclana will be under approximately seven metres of water!

Fanciful ideas on my part? I wish they were but I have this information 'straight-from-the-horses-mouth' so to speak – from within the council itself from a previously tried and tested source. The council in Chiclana is rotten to the core as previous ones have been and would steal your eyeballs if you stood still long enough. Local businessmen have to financially support one of the two main political parties at election time or they know they will never receive another council contract should their business so depend on it.

via Brian Cave                                                   by email

Just as I was yesterday, I am typing emails sitting up in bed. I am  fully clothed in three jumpers, two pairs of trousers and a track suit.  My dear husband, similarly dressed, is tucked up beside me.  He is eighty-six,and suffers from from epilepsy and  a certain amount of mental confusion. Outside the temperature is minus 2 degrees, and is expected to fall further  tonight. Our energy supplier EDF has decreed that we should have ten, 'red days' over the last two frozen weeks, meaning that those of us who live on the Old Age Pension can afford to use electricity only very sparingly.
We retired to bed at three o'clock this afternoon, when my husband found that crouching over our log-burner became too much strain on his back.  The only room we can afford to keep warm is our bedroom, where we can use our electric blanket  plus a paraffin stove for warmth.  
My husband served his country during the war, and worked all his life thereafter without claiming a day's unemployment benefit. He finally retired at seventy, and  was actually proud that he had had the foresight to take out a policy with such a well-respected company. You will perhaps guess that we are Equitable Life Annuitants.

We probably should have claimed for the winter heating allowance before we left UK sixteen years ago, but at the time we lived in a centrally heated home, and felt we did not need any extra allowance. We do not expect privileges not granted to other elderly British citizens; but are exceedingly bitter that we are excluded from allowances which are readily available to other Brits.

Please keep up your good work!
Brian Cave works on behalf of British pensioners residing all over Europe and has sent us this letter from an elderly couple living in France.