7 - 13 September 2017
Landfill sanctions withdrawn IT has emerged the Junta de Andalucia regional government agreed to withdraw three complaints against Nerja Council after discovering it allowed a beauty spot to be used as an illegal landfill. According to media reports, the Junta imposed sanctions in 2001, 2004 and 2005 ‘for the creation and use of an unauthorised landfill in a former quarry without an environmental impact assessment procedure,’ but allowed the complaints to time out after Nerja Council appealed the fines, costing between €60,000 and €150,000 each, claiming the site was instead being restored. According to documents obtained by local Spanish media, the Junta dropped each of their complaints into the illegal use of Rio de la Miel ‘due to the expiry of the legally established deadlines for its investigation,’ while the fate of a fourth complaint, made in 2008, is unknown. Use of the site, located in the Natural Park of the Sierras de Tejeda, Almijara and Alhama, continued from 2000 to September 2016, leaving around 800,000 cubic metres of waste and sparking political fallouts as well as a criminal case. The Guardia Civil has now arrested 12 people, is investigating 25 others and has confiscated €5 million worth of property following the scandal. The Public Prosecutor’s Office has labelled the landfill “a genuine environmental disaster.”
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Mayor sends police packing
Above the law By Sally Underwood Velez-Malag’s mayor, Antonio Moreno Ferrer, expelled tens of Local Police officers from a council meeting after they staged a protest over work conditions. The officers, who have protested twice before, criticised “breaches of promises and lies,” over a delay in approving changes to their work patterns which would see officers work six consecutive days with five days off, compared to their current four-day break. Mayor Ferrer explained he removed the officers for “displaying posters that undermine the image of this corporation and this city,” after they carried placards declaring ‘Unfulfilled deadlines’ and ‘Mayor does not tell the truth.’ On being asked to leave, one officer showed the mayor his work shoes which had a sole missing and asked if that “undermined the image of VelezMalaga,” claiming he had “been writing to ask for a new pair of shoes for two years.” Earlier this month around 60 Local Police officers in VelezMalaga attended another council meeting wearing Pinocchio noses and protesting the council’s delay in approving €500,000 worth of pay rises. Various trade unions, including SIP-An, UPLB and UGT, are on board, urging the mayor
Photo credit Uplb-a/Twitter
ISSUE NO. 1679
PROTEST: Police wear long noses to express their distrust.
to hurry his decision. They claim he promised in March the rises would be approved within five months, but “he has not yet sent us a draft.” Officers then staged a second protest, demanding improvements to their headquarters, as
well as an increase in staff numbers, saying they believe at least another 50 officers are needed. The mayor says he is still
within the timeframe to approve the pay rises and he is working to resolve complaints by the Local Police, which have been “dragging on for years.”
Sewage plant appeal THE PSOE party has demanded Spain’s central government help in resuming works to Nerja’s sewage treatment plant. Miguel Angel Heredia, the party’s deputy leader in Malaga, claimed the lack of a solution over the halted project was an “insult,” and the government had not shown “the slightest interest” in getting involved. Last month, however, politicians from Madrid wrote to Nerja Council offering a series of solutions after the project, which should have been completed in June 2016, came to a standstill in April when its constructors, IsoluxCosan-Corviam, went bust, leaving the plant 95 per cent complete. Isabel Garcia Tejerina, Spain’s Minister for the Environment, wrote, “our decision it either another construction company takes over the existing contract or the contract is voided and the tender process starts again.”