All opposition parties abandoned yesterday’s townhall meeting accusing the Mayor of a “cover up” after her new plans for the town were rejected by the Junta de Andalucia.
Mojácar townhall had announced in a fanfare last September that a new PGOU (town zoning plan) had been drawn up which would secure the future for the town. It has now emerged that the Junta de Andalucia, the regional government, rejected the plans in December – but opposition parties claim that the reasons for the rejection are not being made public in a “cover up” by the Mayor of Mojácar.
The issue came to a public head last night when all the opposition parties again requested copies of the PGOU rejection letters, which are supposedly in the public domain, and the request was again avoided without explanation. All opposition councillors from all groups decided to abandon the meeting in a sign of their anger over the matter.
Diego García of the Unión Mojaquero told reporters after leaving the townhall that “the question revolves around the PGOU document which is being drawn up. The document only has initial approval [allowing work on the document to start] and we [have discovered] that late last December the Junta de Andalucia sent an unfavourable report to the townhall against the plans as they then stood. We have attempted many times to get copies of these Junta reports, as is our right [the documents are supposedly in the public domain] but the Mayor remains silent on the matter and has the documents locked up in her personal drawer in her office, as if they were her own personal documents, and she refuses to hand them over as she is afraid of the public realising just what a mess her townhall plans are, as now has been confirmed by the Junta de Andalucia”.
García explained that due to her “unhelpful attitude, which belongs to the past and her contempt for us councillors who are only trying to carry out our duties” he decided to leave the meeting as a protest against the matter.
Manuel Zamora of the PSOE party agreed, adding that “everything concerning the PGOU is hidden, obscured, there is no transparency” and claims that “it is impossible that important reports have come to the townhall regarding this matter and that no opposition councillor has been granted access to them”. Zamora, who was “visibly angry” (according to Ideal newspaper) continues to say “the Mayor restricts our access to information, she won’t give us copies of reports or refuses to show them to us or says that she must read them aloud instead of passing them across. She once granted me access to read the documents by sending me a letter with an appointment, knowing full well that I work full-time, and made the appointment for a time that was impossible for me to come to the townhall. ” All this, he says, is why he joined in the protest against the Mayor and left the townhall.
The Mayor has complained about the lack of interest shown by social participants in the design of the PGOU, which was on display to the public shortly after it was approved last year, but according to the opposition parties in a complaint they filed at the time, no questions were allowed about the PGOU.
Another complaint about the PGOU is that it does not mention the by-pass which many consider is necessary to alleviate summer traffic on the coastal road.
