Articles from 2000 till 2010

The period 2000–2010 marks an important stage in the administrative history of Planas del Rey.

Through a series of court decisions, agreements and reports, the situation of the common areas gradually becomes clearer, responsibilities for water and waste are progressively redefined, and several attempts are made to organise the redevelopment of the area and prepare, in the longer term, for the formal takeover of the development.

These documents also show how slow and complex this process was, with responsibilities divided between Pratdip Town Council and the EUCC in a way that remained difficult for property owners to understand for many years.

To understand how this situation developed, you can also consult the articles and documents covering the period 1964–1999, which look at the origins of Planas del Rey, the first attempts to transfer the infrastructure and the creation of the EUCC.

What the 2000–2010 period tells us

Taken together, the documents from this period tell a fairly clear story: the administrative situation of Planas del Rey gradually becomes clearer, but that does not mean it is resolved.

At the beginning of the 2000s, several decisions and documents help clarify the situation of the common areas. In 2001, the courts continue the enforcement of the 1993 judgment. In 2002, the EUCC’s lawyer confirms that certain common areas are now registered in the name of Pratdip Town Council.

However, municipal ownership does not mean that the whole development has already been formally and definitively taken over. The agreement signed in August 2002 makes this clear: the Town Council allows the EUCC to continue using and managing certain common areas while awaiting a future formal takeover.

In 2004, another court decision further regularises the situation of certain properties in the Land Registry. Little by little, the question of who owns the land therefore becomes clearer.

But another important question remains unresolved: who should manage and pay for the services in Planas del Rey?

Water and waste become a central issue

In 2008, the High Court of Justice of Catalonia intervenes in the dispute concerning EUCC charges.

The court considers that the costs relating to water supply and waste collection cannot be included in this way in the EUCC’s urban development charges.

This decision does not resolve all of Planas del Rey’s problems, but it forces the organisation of these services to be reconsidered.

In September 2009, Pratdip Town Council and the EUCC therefore sign an agreement establishing a shared management system: the Town Council becomes involved in water billing and waste collection, while the EUCC continues to handle part of the operation and maintenance of the installations.

In simple terms: the temporary situation does not disappear. It is now organised through an agreement.

In 2010, a real way out of this situation is considered

The proposed urban development agreement of February 2010 is particularly important for understanding what was then being considered for the future of Planas del Rey.

The proposed mechanism is relatively simple:

• the Town Council organises the redevelopment works;
• the property owners finance them;
• the EUCC continues to maintain the existing services while the works are being carried out;
• once the works are completed and formally accepted, the Town Council is to take over the infrastructure;
• the EUCC is then to be dissolved.

For the first time, a document therefore describes in such a structured way a possible route out of the temporary situation.

However, this document describes a process that still has to be carried out. It does not prove that the planned works were subsequently completed or that the formal takeover actually took place.

Decisions that proved difficult to enforce

A few months later, in July 2010, a new court order provides another insight into the situation.

The court finds that its 2008 decision concerning the charges linked to water and waste has still not been fully enforced.

It therefore has to impose further measures and, in particular, order the reimbursement to Gérard Fenouillet of the sums concerned, together with legal interest.

This episode shows that, beyond agreements and decisions made on paper, their practical implementation could take several years and require further court intervention.

The Town Council becomes increasingly involved in the management of Planas

The agreement of 28 December 2010 marks another important stage.

Pratdip Town Council states that it has taken over the management of billing and collection for drinking water in Planes del Rei and, together with the Consell Comarcal del Baix Camp, organises the practical management of the service from 2011 onwards.

Water quality control, meter reading, billing, collection and the management of unpaid bills are thus brought within a much more structured administrative framework.

By the end of the decade, Pratdip Town Council can therefore clearly no longer be considered an outside party in the management of Planas del Rey: it owns common land, signs agreements, is involved in certain services and organises the redevelopment project.

And what about the Town Council’s responsibilities?

After reviewing all these documents again, it would be going too far to claim that a court condemned Pratdip Town Council for generally refusing to “take over Planas”.

The court decisions examined do not say that.

What they do show, however, is that a situation presented as temporary continued for many years, even though the Town Council was directly involved in the matter.

Property owners had to live with a situation in which some land was municipally owned, certain services were managed by the Town Council, others remained the responsibility of the EUCC, and the final formal takeover was still pending.

This is probably where the main weakness of this period lies: not in a single decision or in a general fault established by a court, but in a long succession of temporary agreements, shared responsibilities and partial solutions.

With the benefit of hindsight provided by these documents, it is possible to speak of a responsibility arising from inaction, ambiguity and the prolonged management of what was supposed to be a temporary situation.

This last statement is an analysis by La Tribune de Planas based on the available documents. It is not a conclusion reached by a court.

A decade that prepares what comes next

The 2000–2010 period does not therefore bring a final solution to the situation of Planas del Rey.

It does, however, help us understand how the following years came about: the situation of the land is gradually regularised, responsibilities for certain services become clearer, and a redevelopment project intended to lead to the formal takeover of Planas is drawn up.

But by 31 December 2010, most of the work still remained to be done.

The next part of the story will show what became of this project, the planned works and the sharing of their financial cost between the property owners and the municipality.

Jim – La Tribune de Planas