After the recent conferences on irregular planning in Andalusia, which took place in Almeria and Mojacar, were it became evident that immediate and basic measures needed to be taken to deal with this great social problem which affects some 300,000 houses in our autonomous community and perhaps up to 1 million people, AUAN states that it is going to ask for an urgent meeting with the leaders of the political parties in Andalusia that have representation in Parliament.
The second conference was inaugurated by the Mayoress of Mojacar, Rosa Maria Cano, and it took place on 13th April in the Parador de Mojacar. The conference was sponsored by the Official College of Architects in Almeria, the College of Lawyers, the Town Hall of Mojacar, the offices of Vazquez Estudio Juridico and Muxacra Architects, also from Mojacar.
Diverse authorities, associations and professionals attended the conference, including Ecologists in Action and representatives of political parties with a presence in the Andalusian Parliament.
AUAN presented them with the text of a change that the association asks to be made to article 183.3 of the LOUA, to allow houses on asentamientos (houses awaiting legalisation via a town plan) to have immediate access to services, to be able to register title to their homes, and a minimum form of regularisation for social and humanitarian reasons.
Said Maura Hillen, president of AUAN “I think that there is enough political, social and economic consensuses about the need to deal with the problem and I trust that the political parties will adopt this amendment that we would like to see approved during the current parliamentary term.
We ask that the amendment is adopted as a final disposition to the Climate Change Law that is going through parliament at the moment, or via a parliamentary bill. We are asking for a meeting with the leaders of the political parties with representation in the Andalusian parliament in order to emphasise the need for this change“
Hillen added “During the conference in Mojacar we emphasised that planning law must respect the human and social rights of the citizen, and that planning has its limits where the most basic rights of people begin.
Given this, the amendment that we propose would be to extend the legal figure of an AFO, which is now applied to various irregular houses, to houses that are in similar conditions, that is to say, houses on asentamientos, that were excluded from the last reform of the LOUA in 2016.
This does not signify that the houses will be legalised, but it would take these houses out of a legal limbo, allowing them to have a form of legal recognition, and to take measures to reduce their impact on the environment. In addition, this is not incompatible with the future planning of the municipality”.
Maura Hillen finished saying “As we will explain to the autonomous leaders of the political parties, this change is not complicated, it can be done in a short time and will help thousands of people, some of whom are trapped in their houses because they have no title deeds and cannot sell them.
In the Valle del Almanzora there are many such people and many more have fallen by the wayside without being able to return to England to be with their grandchildren during the last years of their lives. This is causing them undeserved suffering that we hope can be resolved with this reform”.
Contact: Maura Hillen, Mobile: 661 329 919. president@almanzora-au.org
