Veïns de Parcent - Newsletter Nº 50 - 6th April 2007

Some up-dates, new dates, and information for you:

Checking the Electoral Roll
Please come to the town hall on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday (10th, 11th, and 12th) between 10 and 11 a.m., or Thursday evening (13th) 7 to 8 p.m., when I or someone else will be available to help you with the Claim Form if you are missing from or wrongly entered on the Electoral Roll. The Claim Form makes it possible to register even if you are not yet on the Padrón, and/or have not filled in the Intention to Vote form. So there is no excuse for not having a vote! Bring your residencia or passport as ID with you.

NB - Monday 16th April is a fiesta for San Vicente, so the town hall will be closed. As the Secretary is only in on the Thursday, it is best to get the claim form filled in for him to countersign by that evening - it might be difficult to do on Friday. We are trying to see if the town hall should be open on all days for the Electoral Roll to be displayed, but don't hold out much hope - so we get 4 days out of the 8 designated!

Postal votes
There is just ONE form to complete and you must attend in person at Correos with your ID. If you will be on holiday, are too ill or disabled to go out to vote, or think you could be away from Parcent on Sunday 27th May for any other reason, please arrange a Postal Vote NOW - forms available in Correos up until 17th May. Obviously, if you do this, you will not be able to vote on the day as well, if you should find yourself in Parcent after all.

If you are unable to go in person to Correos, because of ill-health or disability, then a proxy can be nominated, accompanied by a doctor's certificate and a notarised authority, to apply for a postal vote and to collect your voting papers from Correos. Let me know if this applies to you and you need help arranging it. There should be no charge for the certificates, though if the notary has to travel to Parcent, he may charge for this.

Council meeting - 8 p.m on Thursday, 12th April
Please try to attend this meeting. There is a very controversial item on the Agenda re the financing of the renovation of the building called La Musical. As you know, the council has been getting grants awarded to it for a number of public works in the village, most of which are within reach of the council being able to fund their share (usually 20%) of the total expected cost. But the work on La Musical is estimated to cost a total of 663,000 euros and the grant will not be paid until the work has been completed. Unless they can find a builder who is prepared to do the work first and get paid sometime later (highly unlikely) the town hall has to cover the costs and hopefully get the grant at a later date. This apparently means taking out a loan for about 500,000 euros, which will tie the new council to high repayments for a number of years - effectively about 30% of the municipal budget. The present CDP councillors are being asked to sign an agreement to this. As you can imagine, we are all very unhappy about it. If we refuse, we will be accused of stopping work on something of "great benefit" to the village; if we agree, we mortgage the future development of Parcent and inflict a heavy debt on the new council. If we are coerced into signing this agreement, I am sure that Pere Far will make a statement in the council meeting to explain our position.

The accounts for 2004 and 2005 are also coming up for approval (they are not on the Agenda, but the Secretary expects to add them in time for the meeting!). Those for 2006 have not yet been prepared and could now not be approved before the elections. The budget for 2007 is nowhere in sight! How can the CDP honestly agree to a large future debt when we have no idea of the true financial state of Parcent? As some of you may already know, the CDP inherited a very high debt in 1995 from the previous PP administration, lead by Cosme Moncho, the husband of Mari Carmen López. We do not wish to find ourselves in the same position this time....

Pere Far has tabled a number of questions on the running of the council but they have also been left off the agenda - possibly accidentally - but we hope to get them added in time to be answered properly.

Presentation of the CDP's list of candidates
On Friday, 13th April at 9 p.m. in the Club de Convivencia (venue to be confirmed) the CDP will present their list of candidates for the election on 27th May. We hope you will come to meet them and hear why they are standing and what they hope to achieve in the next four years for the benefit of Parcent and its people. The actual CDP manifesto will not be published until the official election campaigning period starts at the beginning of May.

Donations to the CDP
The CDP will receive virtually no public funding for its electoral campaign (unlike the large parties, such as IU, PSOE, PP, etc.) and we are, therefore asking for VOLUNTARY donations to fund our campaign. This will be to cover mainly printing and other publicity costs as, of course, most of us in the party cover our own out-of-pocket expenses. We do not expect these expenses to exceed 3000 euros.

We have opened an account in CAM, Parcent - number 2090 0183 87 0040075242 in the name of the Coalición Democrática - and we would much appreciate personal donations of 10 euros (or more!) from our supporters. Donations can also be made at the meeting on the 13th April.

On behalf of the CDP, many thanks in advance!

Veïns de Parcent accounts
I am still trying to sort these out! I hope to have up-to-date figures for you shortly. There are over 8000 euros in the account but still some payments for expenses to be made, and some money for T-shirts, etc. to be paid in. However, we have enough to cover our legal expenses for the court case now being processed, which is the main thing.

Our thanks, once again, for all your continued support of the Veïns, both financially and by your presence on important occasions to help our fight against the destruction of Parcent.

All best wishes,

Jenny