At times on Monday morning the queues stretched out of the doors of the Town Hall into the Plaza de los Naranjos, as individuals and representatives of groups waited to officially register their objections.

Many of the owners object to the plan’s proposal to allow these properties to remain standing and become “legal” by means of a compensation system. This involves the developers handing over land to the local authorities, which would gain the town an extra 1.8 million square metres for services and parks and gardens. However if the developers fail to honour this agreement the responsibility for the compensation would fall back on the property owners.

Alternatives

Following the avalanche of complaints and the demonstration both the Town Hall and the Junta de Andalucía admitted separately that the compensation system would have to be revised to avoid property owners having to pay for the irregular actions of developers. The director of the Junta’s Planning Office in Marbella, José María Ruiz Povedano, suggested that legal procedures would have to be found to force developers to fulfil their obligations. Meanwhile the Mayor, ángeles Muñoz, went even further and announced that an alternative solution to the one proposed by the PGOU would have to be found. “Residents should not have to pay for the bad management of others”, she added.

Regards