Wednesday, August 25, 2004
There are plans being made for monthly meetings of AUN members, people who want more information, families who want to join the society etc. So watch this space for where and when the gatherings will be.
Jan.
Jan.
AUN members Sonia and Bill Gale today made the front page (and an inside article) of the Western Daily Press (a newspaper for the SW of England) with yet more media coverage for the LRAU land problems. Below is the article from the website for the newspaper.
BID TO END THE PAIN IN SPAIN
09:30 - 25 August 2004
Campaigners last night vowed to fight to the end to save their Spanish holiday homes from the clutches of greedy property tycoons. Thousands of Britons face losing their dream villas in the sun under Draconian Valencian land laws.It means developers and local authorities on the sought-after coastline can take up to 70 per cent of a person's land without paying. The ex-pats and holiday home owners can also be forced to pay up to £100,000 for unwanted services.Many of them have saved all their working lives to retire in the warmth of the Costa, and won't give up without a fight. Euro MPs are backing their campaign and plan to lean on the Spanish authorities.Last night South West MEP Giles Chichester pledged to lobby the Brussels parliament to act. "People are outraged and upset that having bought their dream home fair and square, they face having up to half their land taken away from them," he said."And to rub salt in their wounds, they have been told they will have to pay money towards the project as well. I think it would make anyone incandescent with rage."Grandparents Sonia and Bill Gale, from Axminster, Devon, are among those affected by the land-grab law. Yesterday they told the Western Daily Press they would continue to battle plans to build on their garden in the village of Las Fustera, on the outskirts of Benissa.Mrs Gale, 55, said: "All we wanted was a quiet place in the sun to get away from the chilly British winters and maybe to eventually move there. What's happened is unbelievable but we are fighting it."Earlier this year, 10,000 people signed a petition calling for action against the land-grab and presented it to the European Parliament. Mr Chichester said he would press the EU Petitions Committee when parliament resumes next week.Charles Svoboda, who is leading a campaign on behalf of Britons, Germans and other expatriates, welcomed the move.
BID TO END THE PAIN IN SPAIN
09:30 - 25 August 2004
Campaigners last night vowed to fight to the end to save their Spanish holiday homes from the clutches of greedy property tycoons. Thousands of Britons face losing their dream villas in the sun under Draconian Valencian land laws.It means developers and local authorities on the sought-after coastline can take up to 70 per cent of a person's land without paying. The ex-pats and holiday home owners can also be forced to pay up to £100,000 for unwanted services.Many of them have saved all their working lives to retire in the warmth of the Costa, and won't give up without a fight. Euro MPs are backing their campaign and plan to lean on the Spanish authorities.Last night South West MEP Giles Chichester pledged to lobby the Brussels parliament to act. "People are outraged and upset that having bought their dream home fair and square, they face having up to half their land taken away from them," he said."And to rub salt in their wounds, they have been told they will have to pay money towards the project as well. I think it would make anyone incandescent with rage."Grandparents Sonia and Bill Gale, from Axminster, Devon, are among those affected by the land-grab law. Yesterday they told the Western Daily Press they would continue to battle plans to build on their garden in the village of Las Fustera, on the outskirts of Benissa.Mrs Gale, 55, said: "All we wanted was a quiet place in the sun to get away from the chilly British winters and maybe to eventually move there. What's happened is unbelievable but we are fighting it."Earlier this year, 10,000 people signed a petition calling for action against the land-grab and presented it to the European Parliament. Mr Chichester said he would press the EU Petitions Committee when parliament resumes next week.Charles Svoboda, who is leading a campaign on behalf of Britons, Germans and other expatriates, welcomed the move.
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Foreigners fight to save homes on Mediterranean coast from developers
By ED McCULLOUGH
Associated Press Writer
MADRID, Spain (AP) Lured by year-round Mediterranean sunshine, more than a million foreigners have built new homes and lives along Spain's Costa Blanca around Valencia in recent decades.
But their properties are now under threat from developers backed by a regional law allowing them to seize up to 50 percent of private land _ while offering little or no compensation.
Homeowners call it a land grab and have won the backing of a fact-finding committee of the European Parliament which says they are victims of expropriation.
"We are going to court. We are going to fight them," said Barbara Lutz Moraques, who moved to Spain from Kiel, Germany, in the 1960s, married a Spaniard and built a house south of Valencia between the cloud-capped mountains and the azure sea.
Apart from the threat of bulldozers knocking over pine trees she planted 30 years ago to lay a road, she _ like her neighbors _ is obliged by the law to help pay for the streets, lighting and drainage set to accompany the planned housing developments. That could lead to her being hit with a six-figure bill.
"Whatever the original intentions of the Valencia parliament were when the (law) was adopted in 1994, there is no doubt that the application ... has led to a serious abuse of the most elementary rights of many thousands of European citizens either by design or by deceit," the EU committee stated in a critical report last month.
"They have had their homes and their land expropriated ... without any proper recourse to real justice," it stated.
The Regulating Law for Urban Activity, passed in 1994, allows developers to claim land reclassified by authorities for urban use, even from private owners. Much of the land in question is not vacant.
The condition is that developers undertake to build low-cost housing and the corresponding infrastructure. That eventually will provide tax revenue for local governments and public investment at low public cost.
The losers are the people who now own the land, like Tony Ainslie, a 69-year-old Briton who has lived in Spain on and off since 1968.
"We came here for the view and the peace and quiet," said Ainslie, who now lives in Oropesa del Mar, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Valencia. Instead, he says, developers are eyeing the area near his home _ to build a theme park.
Phone calls this week to the Valencia regional government's department of land and housing were not returned. But its press office on Friday sent a communique that stated a new law under consideration will "correct some unbalanced situations that favor the developers."
The statement said homeowners still will have the obligation to help finance public infrastructure _ "like streets and sidewalks, water, sewers, lighting" _ that's intended for their benefit _ regardless of whether the homeowners want it.
"Thousands (of homes) and hundreds of millions of euros" are at stake, said Chuck Svoboda, a 63-year-old Canadian who formed the Valencia Association in Defense of Environmental Rights to fight the law.
He says there are plans to carve out nine building plots within his one-hectare, (2.5-acre) property.
It was at his request, backed by 10,000 signatures, that the EU fact-finding committee traveled last May to the three-province Valencia autonomous region that stretches from Castellon south along the Costa Blanca.
"The myth generated by the Generalitat (Valencia's regional government) is that these are rich foreigners," said Russell Thomson, the British consul in Alicante. "But they're not. They're people who bought their dream home in the sun."
An estimated 1.5 million properties have been bought by families from other, mainly northern, European countries in the last 40 years.
Now homeowners are organizing to defend their rights, the European Union seems to be listening favorably, and developers are quickening their pace to take advantage of the 1994 law before it is replaced.
Karen Marco moved from England three decades ago and now lives outside Benidorm, south of Valencia. She said developers claimed most of her 1,300 square meter (about 1/3 of an acre) property around a small house _ and plan to charge her a five-figure sum to help pay for planned infrastructure improvements.
If she can't pay, she says, she risks losing all her land.
On the Net:
Valencia Association in Defense of Environmental Rights, Human Rights and Development Abuses
http://www.abusos-no.org
By ED McCULLOUGH
Associated Press Writer
MADRID, Spain (AP) Lured by year-round Mediterranean sunshine, more than a million foreigners have built new homes and lives along Spain's Costa Blanca around Valencia in recent decades.
But their properties are now under threat from developers backed by a regional law allowing them to seize up to 50 percent of private land _ while offering little or no compensation.
Homeowners call it a land grab and have won the backing of a fact-finding committee of the European Parliament which says they are victims of expropriation.
"We are going to court. We are going to fight them," said Barbara Lutz Moraques, who moved to Spain from Kiel, Germany, in the 1960s, married a Spaniard and built a house south of Valencia between the cloud-capped mountains and the azure sea.
Apart from the threat of bulldozers knocking over pine trees she planted 30 years ago to lay a road, she _ like her neighbors _ is obliged by the law to help pay for the streets, lighting and drainage set to accompany the planned housing developments. That could lead to her being hit with a six-figure bill.
"Whatever the original intentions of the Valencia parliament were when the (law) was adopted in 1994, there is no doubt that the application ... has led to a serious abuse of the most elementary rights of many thousands of European citizens either by design or by deceit," the EU committee stated in a critical report last month.
"They have had their homes and their land expropriated ... without any proper recourse to real justice," it stated.
The Regulating Law for Urban Activity, passed in 1994, allows developers to claim land reclassified by authorities for urban use, even from private owners. Much of the land in question is not vacant.
The condition is that developers undertake to build low-cost housing and the corresponding infrastructure. That eventually will provide tax revenue for local governments and public investment at low public cost.
The losers are the people who now own the land, like Tony Ainslie, a 69-year-old Briton who has lived in Spain on and off since 1968.
"We came here for the view and the peace and quiet," said Ainslie, who now lives in Oropesa del Mar, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Valencia. Instead, he says, developers are eyeing the area near his home _ to build a theme park.
Phone calls this week to the Valencia regional government's department of land and housing were not returned. But its press office on Friday sent a communique that stated a new law under consideration will "correct some unbalanced situations that favor the developers."
The statement said homeowners still will have the obligation to help finance public infrastructure _ "like streets and sidewalks, water, sewers, lighting" _ that's intended for their benefit _ regardless of whether the homeowners want it.
"Thousands (of homes) and hundreds of millions of euros" are at stake, said Chuck Svoboda, a 63-year-old Canadian who formed the Valencia Association in Defense of Environmental Rights to fight the law.
He says there are plans to carve out nine building plots within his one-hectare, (2.5-acre) property.
It was at his request, backed by 10,000 signatures, that the EU fact-finding committee traveled last May to the three-province Valencia autonomous region that stretches from Castellon south along the Costa Blanca.
"The myth generated by the Generalitat (Valencia's regional government) is that these are rich foreigners," said Russell Thomson, the British consul in Alicante. "But they're not. They're people who bought their dream home in the sun."
An estimated 1.5 million properties have been bought by families from other, mainly northern, European countries in the last 40 years.
Now homeowners are organizing to defend their rights, the European Union seems to be listening favorably, and developers are quickening their pace to take advantage of the 1994 law before it is replaced.
Karen Marco moved from England three decades ago and now lives outside Benidorm, south of Valencia. She said developers claimed most of her 1,300 square meter (about 1/3 of an acre) property around a small house _ and plan to charge her a five-figure sum to help pay for planned infrastructure improvements.
If she can't pay, she says, she risks losing all her land.
On the Net:
Valencia Association in Defense of Environmental Rights, Human Rights and Development Abuses
http://www.abusos-no.org
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Today (17th August) the Daily Mail have again covered our land grab story.
also, a member of the AUN has forwarded information that the story is covered on the website www.thisismoney.com/20040817/nm81504.html .
Jan.
also, a member of the AUN has forwarded information that the story is covered on the website www.thisismoney.com/20040817/nm81504.html .
Jan.
We have yet another UK magazine who will cover our land problem story. It is called Everything Spain. So send your stories to richard@brooklandsgroup.com .
Also a journalist has contacted us asking for stories from the Irish people affected by the land laws. If you are Irish please contact karen.rice@irelandonsunday.com .
As always please pass this information on to friends and neighbours who may not have visited this site recently or do not have a computer.
Jan.
Also a journalist has contacted us asking for stories from the Irish people affected by the land laws. If you are Irish please contact karen.rice@irelandonsunday.com .
As always please pass this information on to friends and neighbours who may not have visited this site recently or do not have a computer.
Jan.
Hi everyone.......
No apareció el artículo esperado en la edición del fin de semana de El Mundo, puesto que la periodista recibió tanto correo de personas afectadas en toda la provincia. Antes de redactar el artículo, la periodista tiene que recorrer todos los casos y decidir la manera adecuada para presentar los mismos. Su deseo es escribir un buen articulo y se ha dado cuenta que necesita mas tiempo que previsto.
Gema gemmikip@hotmail.com o al móvil 676049989
The reason the El Mundo article didn't come out this weekend is that the journalist received so much correspondence from all over the province. Before writing the article, she has to study all the stories and decide on how best to present them. She wants to write a really good article and has realised it will take more time than she had foreseen.
Jan.
No apareció el artículo esperado en la edición del fin de semana de El Mundo, puesto que la periodista recibió tanto correo de personas afectadas en toda la provincia. Antes de redactar el artículo, la periodista tiene que recorrer todos los casos y decidir la manera adecuada para presentar los mismos. Su deseo es escribir un buen articulo y se ha dado cuenta que necesita mas tiempo que previsto.
Gema gemmikip@hotmail.com o al móvil 676049989
The reason the El Mundo article didn't come out this weekend is that the journalist received so much correspondence from all over the province. Before writing the article, she has to study all the stories and decide on how best to present them. She wants to write a really good article and has realised it will take more time than she had foreseen.
Jan.
Monday, August 16, 2004
A demonstration is to be held in El Portet on Saturday August 21 at 19.00 hours - arranged by the society Moraira SOS in its fight to save the beautiful area of El Portet.
It is important that all societies support each other at all demonstrations to fight against the Valencian land laws - so please attend if at all possible.
It is important that all societies support each other at all demonstrations to fight against the Valencian land laws - so please attend if at all possible.
