Maura Hillen, president of AUAN has made a statement in the wake of the controversy surrounding 700 illegal houses in Cantoria. She said “the PSOE, the governing party in the Junta de Andalusia and in Cantoria, is condemning dozens of families in the parish of El Faz to the non-regularization of their homes for decades”.

Maura explains “Whilst a change in municipal planning is in progress which will allow houses in the areas of Media Legua and Los Garcias to obtain an AFO, that is to say a form of regularisation, this is not the case for numerous houses in the area of El Faz. These houses are not allowed to benefit from this change and the current planning laws (the LOUA) will not allow these houses to become legalized for many, many years.

And whilst the PP and Ciudadanos are supporting a modification to the LOUA, currently under consideration in parliament, to provide a solution for houses such as those in El Faz, the PSOE is not supporting this change for reasons that we do not understand”

Maura Hillen

Maura Hillen explains “Someone needs to explain to those affected residents in El Faz why they are condemned in this way. And someone needs to explain to society as a whole in Andalusia that everyone is affected by this. 

They need to ask themselves – What is the problem for society as a whole if these houses are not regularised?? What it means is that there will be a lack of environmental control over these houses for many years and a lack of measures to correct their environmental impact. It appears that this is of insufficient importance to the Junta de Andalusia. It means that these houses can be difficult to sell or buy, something which promotes their abandonment and deterioration.

This also appears to be a matter of no importance. All this as well as the psychological torture that is being inflicted on the owners of these houses and foreseeably their heirs, given that it is likely that many will die before they see their homes legalized”.

The president of AUAN states “It appears that none of this is important to the PSOE, although it mattered to them before and we do not understand this change in attitude. The PSOE achieved changes asked for by those affected, asking for and obtaining the support of the PP, and we do not understand why they cannot do the same thing that they asked of the PP at that time.

Hopefully they will reconsider their position because there are many good people in the PSOE who are aware of the need to solve this problem once and for all. And I ask -How is it possible that the Junta, the body with ultimate planning responsibility has failed to avoid such planning disasters?

And my other question is – Why have they washed their hands of it? What we ask of the Junta is to stop washing their hands of the situation, to roll up their sleeves and to start working to provide immediate and once and for all solutions to this problem that we have in Andalusia”.