Crackdown

From the Costa Blanca News:-


Regional housing and territories chief Esteban González Pons has announced that his department will be carrying out checks in all 542 municipal areas in the Valencia Region in order to establish the extent of illegal building.

Sr Pons said the latest techniques in digital aerial photography, a system developed by the Valencia cartography institute, will be used to identify properties that have been illegally built on non-development protected land, illegal extensions and non-licensed swimming pools.

Within 15 days the photography procedure will be completed. Images will be compared to those taken by the cartography institute several years ago and illegal developments will be pinpointed.

An investigation into whether other building regulations have been broken will be carried out and under the regional councillor’s new zero-tolerance policy, demolition orders could follow within six months.

Illegal properties that are more than four years old can be legalised if they fulfil current requirements.

Sr Pons has set a time frame of six months for the investigation process to be carried out.

The action being taken by the regional housing department means it now takes over properties’ surveillance and inspection responsibilities from Guardia Civil Seprona units and police in the region.

Sceptics claim this is another smokescreen from the Valencia government to divert attention away from pending land law issues.

Now we know that our houses are legal but what about all those swimming pools and extensions that people have had built?