COSTA NEWS, March 27-April 2, 2020 News14

Council forcedto accepturbanisationtake-overBlue Lagoon victory offers a ‘ray of hope’ forhomeowners in a similar situation, says lawyer

RESIDENTS of Blue Lagoonurbanisation in San Miguel deSalinas have won a historicvictory against the council,nearly 30 years after theirhomes were completed.

The homeowners haveforced the council to take overthe urbanisation – and startproviding maintenance worksfor roads and parks, and streetlighting.

The urbanisation waslegally built at the beginningof the 1990s and in 2002 it wasextended to total more than700 homes.

The owners, who aremainly British and Germanresidents, had habitation cer-tificates issued; and they werepaying their property tax, ref-use and garden collection feesand had building and parkinglicences (vado) issued by thecouncil – like other housingcomplexes on the outskirts ofthe town.

However, the urbanisationhad not been taken over by thecouncil, meaning residents

had to pay for maintenanceand repair work and the elec-tricity supply for lampposts.

In 2005, the community ofowners officially asked thelocal government to take onthe urbanisation, as they werepaying local taxes and infra-structure works had been com-pleted by the builder decadesbefore. But, the council ref-used, claiming there were seri-ous deficiencies at the site andthe lampposts did not meetwith current laws.

So the residents paid formost of the required worksbut the council kept findingnew repair, maintenance andrevamp works to be carriedout.

One of the outlays for resi-dents was the €44,000 spent in2016 to replace and repair 100lampposts in the urbanisation.

Their case was taken up in2018 by lawyer Ruth López Mo-rueco from López-MoruecoAbogados in Los Balcones,Torrevieja.

She told Costa Blanca Newsthat the problem with street

lighting had become the keyissue.

“The lampposts were over20 years old, they could notmeet the existing energy effi-ciency laws and the town hallknew it,” she said.

“Most of the council of-ficers’ reports were just a copyand paste from previous re-ports and it was clearly a wayof giving the residents therun-around.”

She pointed out that thelocal authority was asking theresidents to carry out unaf-fordable works and obtain cer-tificates they could not get.

The lawyer and communityof owners tried unsuccessfullyto find a solution through anadministrative procedure withthe council.

As a result they decided tobring a lawsuit against thetown hall last year, which wasaccepted in October by anElche court.

Sra López Morueco high-lighted that the commitment,resilience and organisation ofthe residents and the commu-

nity of owners had played acrucial role.

“The homeowners had pre-served all documents and thecommunity of owners wasbrilliantly managed and hadkept all bills, petitions, meet-ing minutes and documents,which were crucial to bringthe lawsuit and eventuallyforce the council to reach anagreement,” she said.

Sra López Morueco notedthat just one month after thelawsuit was accepted by theElche court, she received aphone call from the councilasking them to come to asettlement.

On November 28, the urban-isation was taken over by thetown hall in a full councilmeeting and the final urban-

isation take-over documentwas signed by the local author-ity last month.

Sra López Moruecostressed that the council hadbeen acting in a contradictoryway for decades and knewthey would not only lose in thecourts but be ordered to paythe trial costs as well.

She highlighted that theresidents and the communityof owners had adhered to thelaws and had kept documentsdating back to the 1990s, whichwere ‘solid evidence’.

Sra Morueco pointed outthat the success story of BlueLagoon could be a ray of hopefor homeowners who are liv-ing in urbanisations in a simi-lar situation.

nperez@cbnews.es

By Nuria Pérez

Ruth López Morueco, López-Morueco Abogados

N-332 bridge building in Madrid budgetBy Jack TroughtonCENTRAL government hasincluded the long-awaitedfootbridge across the busy N-332 at Calpe in its 2020 budget- a project seen as essential forthe safety of pedestrians.

The town hall and resi-dents of the Marina Alta re-sort have spent years lobbyingfor a footbridge to link the twosides of Calpe, dissected bythe arterial main road, to re-duce the dangers faced by pe-destrians.

It would link the inland ur-banisations of the Olta moun-tain, the much-visited beautyspot itself, and the railwaystation - the train is used byboth tourists and commuters -with the rest of the town. Thecrossing would also be suit-able for people in wheel-chairs.

Now the local authorityhas been assured the €1.3 mil-lion project is in the current

central government budget; al-though it is not known ifemergency spending over thecoronavirus crisis will affectprogress. The site is close to thesouthern Calpe junction on theN-332. There is an existingunderpass for traffic but it is

not wide enough to have a pave-ment for those on foot.

And the footbridge has achequered history. It received agreen light under then PrimeMinister Mariano Rajoy’s gov-ernment but fell victim topolitical turmoil when the

leader was toppled by a vote ofno confidence.

Hopes were raised again inlate 2018, when the Ministry ofPublic Works announced it hadput the project out to tenderand the bridge was scheduledto be completed the following

year. Although it was beinghailed as a 'historic mile-stone', nothing happened des-pite a ministerial 'promise'from Madrid.

Town hall consultant Ca-role Saunders has confirmedthe local authority has beentold the bridge is part of the2020 budget in Madrid.¨

“The footbridge is not ourresponsibility at the townhall; anything to do withroads are all the responsibil-ity of central government. Weare told it is in the govern-ment’s budget for 2020,” shesaid.

She admitted the budgethad yet to win official appro-val.

“The town hall has alreadypurchased the land it will bebuilt on from the owners.”

A similar crossing bridgesthe N-322 at Ondara, linkingthe commercial centre withthe town.The N-332 stretch in Calpe where the bridge will be built