Done but not dusted

As it happened, the council meeting yesterday in Bigastro lasted just half an hour and the result was that the modifications to the plan for Sector D-6 were approved by the majority – not surprising since the socialists, who back Medina, outweigh the PP party eight to five. The necessary changes to the layout of avenue Vitorio Oliver were all that was required to meet the requirements of the Conselleria in Valencia.

However, the matter might not finish there because Aurelio Murcia has said that the PP now intend taking the matter to court in Orihuela. He gave the mayor, Raúl Valerio Medina, a document before the meeting began so that all the councillors would be aware of the stance that the opposition party were taking on this whole business.

The PP party claim that it was illegal to grant licenses to build on urbanizable land before the plan had been approved and that the council cannot now work in retrospect to put right the things that were wrong. They say this was all pushed through to expedite the building of the new school and that there are in fact two files, one of which leaves reality behind. Murcia adds that Medina was aware of the problems when he was in charge of urbanism under the previous mayor, José Joaquín Moya and should have worked to resolve them at that time.

For his part, the mayor says that resorting to the courts is a ploy that the PP party use when they do not agree with the decisions of the council and that he is is prepared to go with Murcia to Valencia to consult the technicians there to show that everything is now in order. The necessary changes to the original plan have been made and have been approved and that is what matters above anything else..

In my admittedly sketchy understanding of this whole affair, it is not the legitimacy of what is now in place that the PP are questioning but rather the way it has been carried out. Quite what the outcome of all this will be is anyone’s guess.