ARCHIVED - Murcia parliamentary committee visits Camposol

Camposol residents association demands action to rectify historial construction issues

The long-term problems experienced by property owners in some sections of the Camposol residential development in the north of the municipality of Mazarrón have featured prominently in the Murcia regional press this week, with journalists and regional government officials accepting invitations to visit the area to see the problems for themselves.

Among those visiting Camposol were the members of a regional parliamentary committee which is looking into the various historical issues on the development, including faulty infrastructures, land sinkages and the resulting damage to residential properties and roads. The discontent of the residents affected is exacerbated by the fact that over the years little has been done to remedy the situation, with neither the CHS which manages the water network and ramblas, the Town Hall of Mazarrón, nor the promoter of the development (now in bankruptcy) taking on responsibility for resolving the core issues.

These date back to the haste in which developer Grupo Masa built the latter phases of the urbanisation, the opportunity to make profit during the construction boom years leading to the decision to fill in a ramble (a waterway which channels stormwaters during the autumn rains and diverts them into the main rambla taking them away from the residential roads) and flatten a hill to make flatter building land, and then failing to sufficiently compact the earthworks in order to minimise settlement. Over the years pockets of properties in these areas and the infrastructure surrounding them have sunk, damaging the water and sewage networks below the roads, leaving some with noticeable sinkage and blocks of properties with substantial cracking, sinkage and visible damage which makes the lives of thsoe who unwittingly bought them a nightmare.

For years the residents' association has battled with the developer to resolve the situation, and some groups of residents have taken a legal route to force the developer to meet its responsibilities and compensate them for the defective properties purchased, but with the satellite company set up by Grupo Masa to front the development now in bankruptcy, the residents' association (CRA) has upped the pressure on the local council and administrator to resolve the situation and is seeking support from residents to take legal action against those involved at all levels in building the defective properties and those failing to complete the urbanisation to the contracted level.

Part of their campaign includes a relationship with Murcia Transparente, a group dedicated to exposing corruption in urban developments and seeking justice for homeowners caught up in the drive for profit which has left so many areas of Spain with defective second property developments, an organisation which frequently collides with the political establishment due to the fact that in many cases local Mayors have seemingly turned a blind eye to illegal activity within their own municipalities. Of course, this leads to accusations of corruption or incompetence, and MT has created stormy waters in several areas of the region through their activity, part of which involves raising awareness in the Spanish media of the problems still unresolved in many locations.

They are also attempting to raise the profile of the issues which still require attention via the regional parliament, an option open to them now that the balance of power has shifted, with a wider spread of power amongst the newer parties emerging from seven years of economic crisis in Spain and have now revolutionised the political structure of the country.

This same situation has occurred at national level, the two parties which have dominated national politics since the death of General Franco in 1975, the PSOE and the PP, each losing  millions of votes to the newer parties (Podemos and Ciudadanos)in the General Election held last December to such an extent that Spain has been unable to form a new government and must now return to the polls in June. The newer parties are more aggressively advocating social change in Spain and have clashed frequently with the PP over the issues of transparency and corruption,  a series of high profile cases across Spain, mainly related to the process of adjudicating contracts and irregularities during the construction boom, adding fuel to their fire.

Here in Murcia, the dominance of the PP has been dented to such an extent that our current regional government was forced to pact with Ciudadanos in order to form a government, part of which resulted in the PP losing control of the regional parliament for the first time ever.

This has created a situation whereby the regional parliament will more actively investigate subjects which may potentially stir up a hornets nest or two, including that of Camposol and the politicians who visited Camposol this week, along with the Spanish media, were from the regional parliament working committee.

In the regional parliament the PSOE party is proposing that the responsibility for looking after infrastructures on Camposol be withdrawn from the Town Hall of Mazarrón on the grounds that the local government has “shown its inability” (in the words of Alfonso Martínez Baños) to solve the problems there. The idea is for the infrastructure deficiencies to be rectified by the regional government and the Confederación Hidrográfica del Segura (CHS).

Amongst the visitors this week was  María Giménez, a deputy for the Podemos party, who was quoted by La Opinión as saying, that the situation endured by those affected  “is sad and desolate”, calling it “intolerable” that those who caused the problems ( Grupo Masa) have now disappeared. She joined the PSOE deputy in calling for the CHS, the body which has the responsibility to manage the ramblas network, to be part of a resolution to the problem and criticised their lack of action to date, «Where is the Confederación in the face of this environmental disaster?This visit makes us ashamed of everything that has been done (or not) in the case of Camposol.”

Opinion among the homeowners of Camposol is divided on the issue of whether the policy of seeking publicity for their cause and undertaking an aggressive legal case is a wise one. On the one hand, the lack of action has led to a need to make the authorities more aware of what needs to be done in the development, and in this sense the more noise made the better, but on the other hand it has to be borne in mind that so much negative publicity gives the whole area a bad name, with the resulting disadvantageous effect on the market value of properties.

Unfortunately, the headline selected by La Opinión to accompany their article, for example, read "Descent into the hell of Camposol" and the article opened with the paragraph, "Sunken streets, pavements lifted and cracked houses. This was the landscape faced by members of the Committee for Regional Policy, Environment, Agriculture and Water of the Regional Assembly, during their visit to the Camposol urbanization of Mazarrón, whose residents, mostly foreigners, have denounced these irregularities for decades without, so far, their supplications being heard."

The topic of how many properties are affected by the historic issues of the urbanisation is also a contentious one which divides opinion on the urbanisation. One camp maintains that 92% of properties are unaffected by the problems, whereas the CRA maintains that the numbers are considerably higher with many more houses showing defects, and that all residents are affected by the problems of the property blocks where the damage is most evident and the general lack of finishing to the water and sewage infrastructure, the street lighting and the roads network.

Public spirit has never been lacking on Camposol and hard-working volunteers maintain many public areas, work which should have been undertaken by the developer, and there is such a strong sense of community that for many, the problems have become the glue which binds together the community on the urbanisation and makes Camposol a real home for those who live there.

For more local news, events and other information visit the Mazarrón page.