Holiday Homes in Hell (British TV programme)

[Vera]

Some good news at last for the Prior's.


The Constitutional Court has ruled in favour of Len and Helen Prior in that they have a right to appeal against the threat of their house in Vera being declared illegal by the Junta de Andalucía and - worse still - having it knocked down.
Only one problem I can think of - the Junta (in the shape of the Delegado Provincial de Viviendas) er, knocked their house down in January 2008. Additionally doing enormous harm to the provincial economy. I'm sure the Priors will be relieved to hear that it was all just a silly mistake.[/url]http://www.theentertaineronline.com/news.php[url][/url]

[Giddy Goat]

Compensation next, one hopes?

[Big Sis..]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8050768.stm

''The European Parliament has called on Spain to reform planning laws that have allowed developers to acquire private land below market rates and forced homeowners from their properties, with some even having their homes demolished.''

[Vera]

Saturday is 2 years since the demolition of the Priors house, not much has changed. Len was renovating an old camper-van into a loo so they could pee in relative warm this winter when he was admitted into Hospital with a kidney complaint on Monday, he's out now.
On Saturday we will hold a candlelit vigil on the site of their demolished Villa. On Monday there will be a march through Almeria against the proposed demolition of 8 Villas in nearby Albox. All with the correct licences which were subsequently retracted by the regional government. I just want to make you aware of what is happening here in 2010.

[Bellywobble]

There is a Facebook page dedicated to this and on there there is a link to a petition.

Maybe anyone who is interested could sign it?

I haven't quite got the hang of FB and can't find it this morning but I'll have a look later if anyone would like me to post a link to the petition.

[brenda]

Our local SOHA association (Save Our Homes Axarquia) is sending a coachload to the March on Monday so we are supporting the people threatened at Albox who are in a similar situation to some people round here.

There was an article about this appalling situation by the travel editor of the Sunday Express in last weeks edition that can be seen online.

[Big Sis..]

Received this today from Phil at rentinspain

I am an administrator for the www.arboleas.co.uk/forum in Almeria. I have been co-ordinating a campaign against the demolition of 8 houses that have been issued with a demolition order in Albox, Almeria. Each house DOES have a building license. Although unbeknown to any of the owners this was revoked in 2003 a year after the houses were built.
As a forum we are coordinating a campaign to stop these and other possible future demolitions happening. There will be many in all parts of Spain. In fact we heard today of up to 400 houses in Cartama, Malaga of which some must be demolished within 15 days. It involves Spanish, Dutch, German and Irish nationalities. In fact anyone that owns a property built here in the last 10 years.

We have provided a leaflet and petition sheet for downloading. It is not targeted at just our area but all of Spain. Please use the forum link above for more info.

If you can help get this message across it would help ALL owners of property in Spain, not just expats. A local Spanish family is due to have their home demolished on the 12th January. Just around the corner from the Prior's house in Vera.

We have set up a Facebook site http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stop-hous ... 4981508867 and there is now a UK.gov petition running. http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/No-demolitions/#detail

I hope that you can help in some way.

I will email you all with reference to the website later in the month.

Kind regards

Phil

[dublin13]

thankfully we havent had any expeiences around us of land grabing or demolitions, but the whole planning process is messed up. We bought 2 villas which were on 1 site with a good bit of land. we figured we could demolish the two houses and build 4 two storey houses. architect came out measured the site and said we,d easily get the 4 houses on but under planning laws we needed another 100 sq m of land to get the 4 houses, however if our site had been located just across the road (about 12-15 feet away) we would have had no problems. whatever way the local council have zoned our urbanization were on the wrong side of their stupid imaginary planning line.

if these councils around spain have given planning permissions why are they suddenly changing their minds? they messes up fair enough by giving planning thy shouldnt have but now they should just live with it and work around it. you wouldnt get that in any other country in europe ( not even in ireland)

[Vera]

There were 200 people at the Priors candlelit vigil on Saturday night and it received good press coverage which is hard to achieve here so that's positive.

Now were off to march in Almeria, make a noise and a general nuisance.

If anyone on the forum will be there PM me and maybe we can make a noise together.

Please join our facebook group that Big Sis posted about, 1500 friends and growing.

[Vera]

The march went well, no trouble, good weather and about 700 people, in reality there should have been thousands but for some reason people don't want to be involved.
11,000 homes threatened with demolition in this region = 22,000 people ? surely each of these has one friend who cares = 44,000 people, add in the other areas ??

Still at least 1,700 people have become fans on facebook.

Lots of press coverage out there and the march did secure a meeting with the Public Ombudsman for Andalucía in Seville on Friday.

http://www.theentertaineronline.com/news.php

[Giddy Goat]

Well done Vera and fingers crossed for Friday.

[Vera]

At last some good news for the Priors

A note from the AUAN:
JUDGE ORDERS TEMPORARY HOME BE PROVIDED FOR LEN AND HELEN PRIOR
After two years of living in their former garage, following the illegal demolition of their home, at last there is a bit of good news for Len and Helen Prior of Vera.
As well as claiming compensation from the council for the loss of their home, the lawyers acting for the couple also applied for “provisional measures” to house them in a property similar to the one they lost. Now the judge in the case has ordered the council to either find them a similar property or pay the rent on one they find for themselves while the case is sorted out.
Len and Helen have indeed found a suitable property and are now waiting for the council to approve the agreement. They are both pensioners and their health has suffered considerably during the stress of the last two years. The demolition of their house was illegal and to date they have received nothing for their loss.
They have NOT won their case, NEITHER have they received any compensation. These matters are still to be resolved.
But we at the AUAN are delighted that they will at least be accommodated somewhere more suitable than the garage in which they have spent their last two anxious years.

[Giddy Goat]

A bit of justice at last; at least they can live in comfort while the rest of the negotiations continue. Poor people.

[Eileen2]

Thank you for the update Vera. Nothing can ever compensate the Priors for the affect this has had on their health but at least it's heartening to know that things could at long last be moving towards a more positive light.

[Mouse]

Great to hear something positive has happened at last Vera...I'm sure that it will help them feel stronger. I can't imagine the toll it must have taken on their health.

Mouse
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