2018: SOS Planas asks for the EUCC liquidation to be completed

On 30 August 2018, the Les Planes del Rei Residents’ Association, also known as SOS Planas, submits a formal application to Pratdip Town Council.

The document, registered under number 2018001553, concerns the consequences that the association believes should follow from the judicial dissolution of the former Urban Development Conservation Entity of Planas del Rey.

SOS Planas makes three main requests: to complete the liquidation of the EUCC, to review several agreements previously signed with the former entity, and for the Town Council to provide the public services that the association considers should now fall under municipal responsibility.

In simple terms: the document establishes that these requests were formally submitted to the Town Council. It does not, however, constitute either an administrative decision or a court ruling establishing that the agreements in question had automatically become void or that all of the EUCC’s obligations had transferred to the municipality.

A request based on the judicial dissolution of the EUCC

The association bases its request mainly on the ruling issued on 21 July 2016 by the High Court of Justice of Catalonia, which declared the dissolution of the Planas del Rey EUCC.

It also refers to the order of 12 December 2017 in which Administrative Court No. 1 of Tarragona dealt with the enforcement of that decision.

The order stated, among other things, that after dissolution the entity’s governing body was to become a liquidation body, responsible for dealing with outstanding matters, settling debts and collecting any amounts still due before the entity could be finally closed.

In its application of 30 August 2018, SOS Planas argues that this liquidation process has not been completed and asks the Town Council to intervene so that it can be brought to an end.

The document also contains a minor inconsistency in the date: its first heading refers to “21/06/2016”, while the body of the text correctly refers to the ruling of 21 July 2016.

Several agreements challenged by SOS Planas

The second part of the application concerns a number of agreements signed over the years in connection with the management and future of Planas del Rey.

SOS Planas argues that the judicial dissolution of the EUCC should bring an end to the effects of several agreements to which the entity was a party and asks the Town Council to recognise them as void.

Several of the documents mentioned in the application are now preserved in the archives of La Tribune de Planas.

The agreement of 9 August 2002

The association first refers to the urban planning agreement of 9 August 2002 between Pratdip Town Council and the EUCC concerning the maintenance of the development.

This document is particularly useful for understanding the situation at the time. Among other things, it distinguishes the registration of certain land in the name of the Town Council from the formal administrative acceptance of the development, while maintaining certain maintenance and completion obligations on the EUCC.

The water agreement of 10 September 2009

SOS Planas also refers to the agreement of 10 September 2009 between Pratdip Town Council and the EUCC concerning the drinking water supply.

This agreement had established a shared and transitional arrangement for several aspects of the water service in Planas del Rey.

An agreement relating to the Comaigua service

The application also mentions an agreement that it describes as having been signed between Pratdip Town Council and the EUCC in connection with the Comaigua service.

One document preserved in the archives of La Tribune is relevant to this issue: the agreement of 28 December 2010 between the Baix Camp County Council and Pratdip Town Council concerning the drinking water service in Planas del Rey.

This is not, however, exactly the document described in the SOS Planas application. The agreement of 28 December 2010 was signed between the County Council and Pratdip Town Council; the EUCC was not a signatory. It sets out various technical services relating to the drinking water supply.

It should therefore not automatically be presented as the agreement referred to in point c) of the application of 30 August 2018.

The agreement referred to as dated 19 February 2010

Finally, SOS Planas refers to an agreement dated 19 February 2010 concerning, according to the association, the monitoring of works and the redevelopment of Planas.

The documents available from that period show that an urban planning cooperation framework had indeed been considered in relation to the monitoring of redevelopment works. On their own, however, they do not establish that all of the measures envisaged within that framework were ultimately formalised and implemented.

The alleged invalidity of the agreements: the association’s position

SOS Planas argues that the legal disappearance of the EUCC should render the agreements to which it was a party ineffective and transfer certain obligations to Pratdip Town Council.

This interpretation forms the basis of the association’s request of 30 August 2018.

It is nevertheless important to distinguish this argument from what the courts had actually decided.

The 2016 ruling had declared the dissolution of the EUCC, and the 2017 order had dealt with the enforcement of that dissolution. Those decisions did not automatically declare all earlier agreements void, nor did they determine, service by service, that every obligation had transferred to the municipality.

The application of 30 August 2018 should therefore be understood as a request submitted by SOS Planas to the Town Council on the basis of its own interpretation of the legal consequences of the dissolution.

Public services at the centre of the third request

The third part of the application returns to the difficulties experienced in Planas during 2018.

SOS Planas argues that several court decisions require the municipality to take responsibility for certain services and criticises the Town Council over the situation in a number of areas.

The association refers in particular to:

problems with the operation of the wastewater treatment plant;
difficulties relating to waste collection;
public lighting;
and repeated water cuts.

A few days earlier, these issues had already led several residents to file two formal complaints with the Reus court on 24 August 2018.

Here again, the document of 30 August needs to be read carefully: it sets out SOS Planas’s position on the responsibilities of the Town Council. It does not itself constitute a court ruling definitively determining the respective obligations of the municipality and property owners for each of these services.

Three requests submitted to the Town Council

At the end of its application, SOS Planas summarises its requests.

The association asks Pratdip Town Council:

to ensure that the liquidation of the former EUCC is fully completed in accordance with urban planning law;
to declare void the agreements that the association considers to have lost their effect following the dissolution;
and to provide properly, effectively and efficiently the public services that SOS Planas considers to fall within municipal responsibility.

The application is submitted in the name of the Les Planes del Rei Residents’ Association.

A late summer marked by a series of formal actions

The application of 30 August is submitted in a particularly tense context.

Six days earlier, three Planas residents had filed two separate complaints with Investigating Court No. 4 in Reus concerning, among other issues, water cuts, public lighting, wastewater treatment and various infrastructure problems.

With this new step, SOS Planas turns directly to the Town Council and this time requests specific administrative measures concerning the liquidation of the EUCC, the earlier agreements and public services.

Two years after the court ruling declaring the dissolution of the EUCC, the practical consequences of its disappearance therefore remain at the centre of disagreements between some property owners and the municipality.

What should be remembered

On 30 August 2018, SOS Planas formally submits an application to Pratdip Town Council.

The association asks for the liquidation of the former EUCC to be completed, for several agreements to be declared void and for the municipality to take responsibility for a number of services.

The 2002 and 2009 agreements referred to in the application are still preserved today and help clarify the arrangements that had governed certain aspects of the relationship between the EUCC and the Town Council.

An important document concerning the water service in 2010 is also preserved, but it is an agreement between the Town Council and the Baix Camp County Council rather than an agreement signed by the EUCC. This distinction means that it cannot automatically be identified as the document referred to by SOS Planas in its application.

In simple terms: the judicial dissolution of the EUCC was established. What remained disputed in August 2018 were the administrative, contractual and practical consequences that the different parties believed should follow from it.

Jim – La Tribune de Planas