In answer of years of criticism by Mr Tom Finnegan CDiP President, who has continuously accused the CRA of achieving nothing, yet now because of his lack of credibility wants to be “Associated” with the CRA, we would like to point out some of the issues the CRA Committees have had to deal with over just the last 5 or so years:-
In early 2013, after being alerted to the fact that properties were being sold and existing properties carried Justo y Manoli legal embargoes, the CRA acquired Nota Simples (current status) documents, over 700, from the Catastro Department for all properties still under Justo y Manoli ownership, in problem areas D23, D32, etc., numerous members and non-members of the CRA were informed of the situation and took steps to prevent their properties being auctioned.
April 2014, the CRA Committee took the Mayor in waiting, Paco Garcia plus 2 Council Architects on a tour of the problem areas of Camposol, Paco Garcia gave assurances he would do everything in his power to improve and regularise the urbanisation, which lead to:-
Collaboration in the aftermath of the September 2014 floods on D Sector between the CRA, Council and Consorcio (emergency contingency fund).
Starting in early 2015, weekly meetings took place with the CRA, which included Juan Miguel Munoz (Councillor for Urban Services), Ismael Gomez (Councillor for Foreigners), Paco Fernandez (Council designated Camposol Foreman), many issues were discussed and actions agreed, according to severe budgetary constraints, in the 5 months these took place street signs were supplied for those missing, the serious subsidence on the dual carriageway between C and D sector was repaired, chronic road deterioration caused by the 2014 floods in Calle Robles was re-laid, contracts and work orders were placed with electrical contractor “El Capi” to start repair and reinstatement of street lighting, work was started and lights began to be illuminated, unfortunately the 2015 election took place and the incoming Mayoress cancelled the contracts.
May 2015, The Mayor also asked for support from Camposol in attending the Pleno days before the 2015 Election to pass the amendments to the Plan Parcial for Camposol, 8 CRA members attended the Pleno no attendance by Tom Finnegan.
After the election, meetings with the new Council became difficult if not useless, so September 2015 the CRA in conjunction with Murcia Transparente escalated Camposol’s case to the Murcia Regional Assembly, after visits from Regional PSOE, Ciudadanos and Podemos parties the situation was deemed so bad that a Regional Working Commission for Camposol was proposed and set up with the aim of investigating Camposol’s infrastructure predicament and presenting solutions, a Report including solutions was written and approved by all Political Parties in the Regional Assembly on 22nd March 2018, the CRA had a delegation of 5 present, again no show from Mr Finnegan.
Also during 2015, it was recognised by the CRA that there were numerous individual households that had specific legal issues with their documentation, indeed some had no documents at all, with the assistance of Murcia Transparente a legal avenue was offered to resolve these problems
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In April of 2016, the CRA where invited by the Regional Assembly’s Working Commission to attend one of their sessions in Cartagena in order to provide an “Impact Statement” as part of the investigation, Committee members attended and during the meeting invited members of the Regional Dept of the Environment, Agriculture and Water to visit Camposol to witness the problems first hand, the invitation was accepted and the following week 9 members of the Department visited Camposol, they were shocked to say the least, and gave statements on video that solutions would be sought.
In November 2016, a holiday homeowner and Civil Engineer by profession alerted the CRA to the fact that part of Calle Aljibe had deteriorated and become a dangerous structure, the CRA completed an official request for action, which was lodged with the Town Hall and informed the Regional Commission, in December after a Gota Fria part of Calle Aljibe did indeed collapse, initially the resulting crater measured 1metre x 1.5metres it now measures over 8 metres x 3.5 metres, the CRA have lodged numerous official complaints, nothing from Mr Finnegan.
In mid 2017, the CRA Committee fielded several important issues not least a report from Aqualia stating that the whole urbanisation’s sewage infrastructure did not work and untreated sewage had been draining into the ramblas for at least 6 years, although this situation was known to the Town Hall and the Regional Assembly had passed a motion in 2015 to supply the Town Hall with 900,000€ to refurbish the Treatment Plant, no work had been started and the 12 pumps supplying the plant were not in good condition in fact only one had ever worked, after placing an official action request with the Town Hall in July 2017 the CRA approached the Guardia Civil who sent agents from their Environmental Division SEPRONA to take samples of the rambla water and issue a denuncia to the Town Hall and CHS (covered in Spanish and English speaking press) the Commission was informed and one of their spokesmen visited the CHS at their Head Office in Murcia, within days ESAMUR (the Regional Sewage treatment department) started work on the Camposol Sewage treatment plant, which was completed in May 2018 (covered in the Spanish and English speaking press), Aqualia started work on the contract to fix the 12 sewage pumps on Camposol and replace missing sewer pipes, the work was completed in May 2018 (covered in the Spanish and English speaking press) and Camposol for the first time had a functioning sewage infrastructure.
In May 2017, the CRA had a meeting with Tina Ruiz (Mazarron Ciudadanos Party) and Murcia Transparente to debrief after her representation of the CRA in the National Government in Madrid regarding the D sector Rambla issue (covered in the Spanish press), meetings were held with one of the spokesmen of the Regional Commission regarding the Regional Assembly’s proposals for Camposol.
Also in mid 2017, the Chairman of the CRA and then President of the CDiP had a meeting to discuss a collaboration on issues which both organisations could work together on, it was decided that this could be useful to both and also the urbanisation, an agreement was reached that the CRA would have a representative at CDiP Committee meetings, it was also mentioned, that at a recent meeting attended by the CRA Chairman between the British Consul and Mazarrón Council, the Mayoress spoke about an “Entity” for Camposol, the CRA Chairman insisted that this couldn’t happen as the urbanisation was not finished, unfortunately Mr Finnegan the then CDiP General Secretary politicised the whole issue and in his membership newsletter and a local publication falsely accused the CRA of colluding with the Mayoress and Consul in attempting to enforce an Entity on the residents and homeowners of Camposol, which was absolute rubbish, Mr Finnegan also informed the CRA Chairman that he and the CDiP were “at war” with the CRA, obviously any hope of further collaboration between the 2 organisations was finished as long as Mr Finnegan had any influence over CDiP affairs.
In 2018, a member of the CRA Committee along with a Mazarrón Councillor toured Camposol and listed the water leaks and repairs that required completing by Aqualia, this is now well under way with many roads and pavements being made good.
In March 2018, as mentioned above the CRA attended the Regional Assembly Meeting to witness the approval of the Commission’s report, which lead to the following:-
In August 2018, a meeting was held on Camposol regarding the problem of the rambla on D Sector which is blocking the process of the Camposol urbanisation being added to the General Plan of Mazarrón and subsequent adoption, the meeting was attended by the National Government Delegate for Murcia, the President of the CHS (Rivers Authority), the Mayoress of Mazarrón plus the Deputy Mayor and 4 Councillors, the President of Murcia Transparente, numerous members of the press and TV and 5 CRA Committee members were present, again no sign of Mr Finnegan.
November 2018, the CRA Chairman and Secretary attended a meeting in Murcia with the CHS President to discuss the progress of the D Sector Rambla re- route, details of the meeting can be found on the CRA website.
All of the above came about with the CRA’s involvement or behest.
It is quite obvious that the funds required to complete Camposol will never be raised by Mazarron Council without some external intervention, which is why the Regional Assembly’s actions are crucial, they have agreed along with the CHS to help seek funding for the D Sector Rambla problem and if all goes to plan will be the driving force behind the big push to complete the urbanisation, strangely before the CRA’s approach to the Regional Assembly in 2015 there was no knowledge on a Regional level that any problems existed on Camposol.
Since 2015, there have been 5 important Camposol related proposals debated in Mazarron Town Hall Pleno (Full Council Meeting), CRA Committee members have attended every one, even the Podemos Party who have no Councillors in the Town Hall and did not put up any candidates in the last election attended most if not all of these meetings, Mr Finnegan now President of the CDiP Camposol’s own political party did not attend any of these meetings.
The above are just some of the many trials and tribulations, some personal, dealt with by the CRA Committee who are volunteers and not paid employees in Council Office, they are far from a “Dead Hand” as described in a previous press release by Mr Finnegan, they are very obviously the “Helping Hand” that Camposol needs, so is it any surprise that the Committee do not want to be linked or “Associated” to the all criticising, toxic and outdated attitude adopted by the current CDiP President, whose only official meeting with Mazarron Town Hall was to represent a fraction of Camposol residents, accompanied by a fanfare of promised IBI refunds going back 4 years, all of which has resulted in nothing.
In Conclusion
CRA Committees have in the past and the current Committee continue to work for the improvement of the Camposol Urbanisation without seeking reward or accolade, recognition or glory, the immensity of the task of correcting the many problems that inflict the unfinished urbanisation mean that solutions have to be addressed in manageable and realistic stages, which will take time, but poco a poco (little by little) the CRA Committee are making inroads with the help of Local, Regional and National authorities by making friends rather than enemies.