Lawyer Gerardo Vázquez, spokesman for various associations of affected people from different parts of Andalusia, was present in the Andalusian Parliament during the approval of the “LISTA”, the new fundamental urban planning law of this Autonomous Community.
THOSE AFFECTED BY IRREGULAR HOUSING WELCOME THE “LISTA”.
Lawyer Gerardo Vázquez, spokesman for various associations of affected people from different parts of Andalusia, including Almería, Cádiz and Málaga, was present in the Andalusian Parliament during the approval of the “LISTA”, the new fundamental urban planning law of this Autonomous Community. He informs us “it was a great day, and an honour to be invited and to be able to see the culmination of almost 15 years of work. Andalusia now has a new and renewed legal framework to work with, not only in terms of irregular housing but in general. I have been impressed by the work capacity and efficiency shown by the Consejería de Fomento, Infraestructuras y Ordenación del Territorio of the Junta de Andalucía, in the very short time since the new Andalusian government was formed. We congratulate them. Congratulations also to the PP, Ciudadanos and Vox. And also to the PSOE for abstaining. In fact, we congratulate all the political parties in the Andalusian parliament, for all that has been done before, and for the sensitivity shown for irregular housing”.
The affected associations represented by Mr. Vázquez declare that, while it is true that this new law incorporates previous reforms, it also contains important improvements which they foresee will facilitate the incorporation of irregular dwellings into normal environmental, urban planning and legal security, in turn facilitating that these dwellings can be conditioned, bought and sold, and can now even be subject to consolidation and reform works, as previously they could only be repaired.
However, in addition to this undoubtedly good news, the associations inform us that the final hurdles still need to be overcome. Gerardo Vázquez says “what is important now are the regulations that will come and will detail the more exact operation of this reform. We would like, if we are allowed, to have the opportunity to contribute our grain of sand in this”.
Vazquez explains, “The main problem that exists now is that some municipalities and their technical services seem reluctant to apply all these new regulations. It seems as if some of them are stuck in the past and the old cumbersome and bureaucratic way of doing things”.
He gives us an example, “For example, sometimes the technical service of some town councils ask us to prove the legal existence of the specific plot where the irregular dwelling is located, in order to be able to give a recognition of the building and its plot by the AFO declaration procedure. But it is precisely the AFO that allows the legal recognition of that plot! In other words, we are being asked to do the impossible, and those affected find this clearly illogical. This is just one example that makes it extremely difficult to carry out a deliberate regularisation. These are hurdles that must be overcome and we hope that the regulation details these issues, and above all we hope that all municipalities and their technical services get to work decisively on this new scenario of the LISTA”.
Concludes Vazquez, “I understand that the duty of the local administration is to facilitate the regularisation of dwellings to the greatest extent legally possible, given that this is precisely the spirit of this new law. A law that we hope will be a revulsive for Andalusian town planning, that is to say that we believe it represents a brighter and more hopeful present and future, provided it is applied properly and with real desire, and we hope that this will be the case.”