Veïns de Parcent – Newsletter Nº 63 – 18th July 2007

Summer greetings to everyone.

As Jenny is on her travels in France I am taking over the newsletter to keep up her good work at keeping you all informed!

Veïns have had a quiet month as Joan Carles and I have started our work in the Town Hall. However, we have officially now resigned as President and Spokesperson as we do not want a conflict of interests with our role within the Town Hall. New officials will be elected at a general meeting to be held in September when everyone arrives back from holidays. In the meantime Vicent Berenguer is to be our spokesperson with the press.

I travelled to Strasbourg in June at the request of our supporters in the EU parliament. In my role as petitioner I spoke to all the Spanish and British MEPs we have got to know over the past year and lobbied for their support in the crucial vote on the resolution resulting from the MEPS fact finding mission to Parcent and Spain in March this year. The resolution was passed with a good majority, crucially supported by all British political parties. It is very hard-hitting and continues to put pressure on the Valencian government to change the land laws. During the debate the Commission spokesman for Internal Markets also confirmed that the Commission has initiated a case against the Spanish state in the European Court of Justice over the issue of violation of public contract directives by the Valencian law LUV. This is of great importance to us as the PAIs in Parcent also contravene this directive and it is cited in our petition.

TOWN HALL NEWS

Swimming pool
We finally opened the piscina on July 4th after frantic efforts to repair a year's negligence in less than two weeks. The Town Hall is supporting the annual swimming classes run for local children.

Rubbish
We have had a difficult two weeks with the basura service. The contract has changed hands, the new contract being negotiated some time ago by the Mancomunidad de Vall de Pop, which is the local grouping of villages of which Parcent is a member. Firstly the old company took away the bins two nights before they were due to be replaced and then the new company took nearly a week to replace them, Arenal being the area worst hit. This was despite numerous phone calls to the company demanding further action. Since then the service has been patchy, we are seeing overflowing bins, paper and glass not removed frequently enough and two nights without service in the village, one due to the lorry breaking down. We are continuing to complain about this service and are meeting with the Mancomunidad and rubbish company this week to insist that Parcent receives a better service. We are grateful for your patience and hope that things will improve very soon.

Pleno (council meeting)
We held our first council meeting where the various council jobs were distributed and are as follows:

• Maximo: Mayor, Local services, Mancomunidad
• Jacqui: Deputy Mayor, Treasurer, Contact with English speaking community, Environment, Agriculture, Commerce, Tourism, Rubbish
• Joan Carles: Urbanismo, Education and Culture
• Fabiola: Health, Social Services, Citizens groups (responsibility for links with village associations)
• Jaume: Sport, Youth, Fiestas.

We are still working out timetables for us all, complicated at the moment due to summer and holidays but when we have a definite timetable where we can be contacted at the Town Hall I will send it out via email. Meanwhile please phone Town Hall on 96 640 5301 if you wish to speak to any one of us.

We also announced at the pleno our withdrawal of the draft general plan. This was drawn up by the last administration and included the PAIs, our proposal now is to continue to work towards having the PAIs themselves withdrawn so we can then start from scratch with a new draft general plan that protects our environment whilst allowing for reasonable development in Parcent.

The final point raised at the pleno was the payment of invoices on the last days of the previous administration without the signature of the secretary and without the necessary funds in the budget. The Secretary therefore has made an official complaint about this action which contravenes regulations, although the invoices were paid by decree of the former Mayor.

Computer classes
The Town Hall is advertising computer classes for beginners and higher standard. We have a teacher available from July to October, provided by a grant, and he has provided a timetable for classes. If anyone is interested they can look at the proposed times and put themselves down for classes. They can be continued at home using the internet. This is a very useful opportunity for many of us to become more computer literate so please take advantage of the free classes.

Water report
The Town Hall made public last week the response from the Defensor de Pueblo and Water Authority to Veins de Parcent's petition. We will post the reports on the web-site but the findings are that both the institutions call on the Conselleria to not approve the PAIs without a favourable water report. The CHJ goes further in stating that if the Conselleria does go ahead, with their vote against, then they will take steps to send the case to court via the Ministry of Environment in Madrid. This is good news and increases the pressure on Conselleria to throw out the PAIs. However, we continue to act with caution and take nothing for granted in our long running fight and remind you that as yet the PAIs are still on the table and our actions continue.

I think that is all for now. Apologies for the lack of contact over the last weeks and thank you for your patience. The many wonderful ideas that were raised over the election campaign have not been forgotten, i.e. volunteer helpers, more regular updates and contacts, etc., however, with the complications of summer I suspect we will be more organised in the Autumn.

Regards to all, Jacqui Cotterill