VEÏNS DE PARCENT DEFEND THEIR PETITION IN EUROPE

The petition from Veïns de Parcent to the European Parliament, about the disastrous urbanising plans put forward by the Town Hall of Parcent (consisting of 3 PAIs and a draft General Plan), was debated today by the EU Petitions Committee. The president of the association, Jacqui Cotterill, took the stand first to show how these plans violate European legislation in several ways (as can be seen in the attached copy of her speech), for which reason the association has asked the EC for protection and have requested the Committee to give a decisive answer on these matters.

Immediately afterwards, Mari Carmen López, the mayoress of Parcent, defended her position and denigrated the association, who she accused of being manipulative and of acting in bad faith.

Taking this up, the Valencian socialist MEP Joan Calabuig, immediately replied that he considered it a disgrace that a mayoress should so scorn her citizens. A further 4 MEPs: Inés Ayala (socialist), Michael Cashman (British labour party and vice-president of the Committee), Neil Parish y Sir Robert Atkins (British conservatives), supported our claims.

In these speeches certain very important points stood out, such as how the mayoress had discredited the "Parcent Doctrine" (the unprecedented act of cautionary suspension of the PAI for El Replá, recently handed down by the High Court of Justice in Valencia), or her detraction of the resolution of the Valencian Ombudsman given because of a complete lack of a relevant report on the availability of water (a resolution that advises against the approval of the 3 PAIs and recriminates the councillors for their actions in passing these plans without a report). They also showed their surprise concerning the prohibition against collecting signatures in the spring (among which are included some of the 3390 that support this petition), as well as being amazed at the family link between the councillor for town planning and the agent for the promoter of the El Replá PAI. We must point out that they all insisted that the Committee looked into these matters.

This debate, moreover, was a good example of how much this type of savage urbanisation is worrying Europe.Only Juan Manuel García Margalló, a PP MEP, defended the mayoress.The result of these discussions was that they consider the petition has so much relevance that it must stay open so that it can continue to be discussed in the future, especially now that new documentation has been provided, such as the "Parcent Doctrine", the Ombudsman's report, and the new draft General Plan now modified from that proposed on 30th January 2006.

But it was also requested and approved that the Petitions Committee call for a meeting with Mr Dimas, an environment commissioner. And besides all this, it was decided that a delegation of MEPs visits Parcent and other places similarly affected in the new year.