From Mark Harrison. 10^th November 2006 16:01

Great News

I have just heard from our lawyer Jonathan Lambert that the Tribunal Superior de Justicia (TSJ) in Valencia has accepted our contention that the PAI for Sector Replá should be suspended pending a full hearing of our claim for the plan to be annulled as illegal.

What does this actually mean?

As we all know, the PAI for Sector Replá was provisionally approved by the town hall on 30th January this year, two days before LRAU was to be abolished. In April this year our lawyers lodged a contencioso administrativo with the TSJ, which claimed that the whole basis of the PAI for Sector Replá, and the actions of the town hall in provisionally approving it, were illegal. This contencioso was based on the allegations which our lawyers had previously made to the town hall in 2005 when the plans were first submitted, and which the town hall chose to ignore when they provisionally approved the plan.

Normally, it would take more than a year for our contencioso to be determined by the TSJ, and in the meantime the town hall would have been able to continue to process the plans, working towards a definitive approval. (It has often happened in other cases that by the time the TSJ reaches a final decision, the plans have been finally approved and it can be very difficult to unravel them). However, in view of the seriousness of our case and the strength of our arguments, our lawyers took the unusual step of submitting an additional request for the whole process to be suspended pending the final determination of our case. The decision today accepts our claim for the total suspension of the planning process and effectively means that the town hall and the Consellaria in Alicante can do nothing further with the plan until our case is heard in full. Our lawyer says this is likely to be a year or more and the PAI for Sector Replá is effectively "on ice" until then.

It does not mean that we have won a final or decisive victory, but we should not underestimate the scale of this initial success. We have broken new ground because this is the first time that the court in Valencia (the most senior court in the Comunidad) has taken the step of suspending a plan before a case is formally determined. In those terms, it is a huge success and a major blow to those in the town hall who thought they could just plough on regardless of our objections. It also means that it is virtually impossible to imagine that the plan for Sector Replá can be progressed further before the municipal elections next May.

There is just one note of caution. The town hall has five days to respond to the judgement. However, as their response will be considered by the same judges who issued this decision, our lawyer says it is hard to imagine they could come up with new information or grounds to overturn this landmark ruling.

Obviously, I will keep you informed if there is any more news.

(Note: You may have heard from other sources that the Sindic de Greuges – the Valencian Ombudsman – this week issued a highly critical report in response to the complaints from Veins de Parcent. The report clearly states that the three PAI's in Parcent (Sector Replá. La Solana and El Cantalar) should not have been considered without a proper report from the Confederación Hidrológica del Júcar (The River/Water Authority for this region) confirming the availability of sufficient water resources to meet the demands of the plans. The Ombudsman calls on the town hall and the Conselliaria to suspend all three plans until this report has been obtained. The Ombudsman's report is not legally binding on the town hall. They have one month in which to respond, but in the case of Sector Replá the argument would appear to be academic since the plan is now suspended by virtue of the decision from the TSJ).

Regards

Mark Harrison