Negotiations Initiated to Approve the Statutes of the Urban Management Department.

The Mayor of Manilva, Salvador Zotano, has begun the necessary negotiations to approve, as soon as possible, the statutes that will govern the running of the new Department of Urbanisation, Housing and Infrastructure. With this in mind Zotano has met with the technical staff to outline the basic statutes whose approval is expected shortly.

These measures, indicated the Mayor, will signal a fundamental change in the structure of Town Council and will introduce a new level of ‘transparency’ in the municipal management “something that is necessary for a town like Manilva that is part of the Costa del Sol”.

The objective of this initiative, explained the Mayor, is that this team of technicians will take responsibility for much of the decision making in matters of planning decisions and “the image of relations between politicians and promoters will be eliminated, as all projects will have to be passed according to this departments approval”. And with respect to low cost VPO housing “I do not feel it appropriate that politicians decide who qualifies for low cost housing, and that it is better in the hands of the technical officers who award homes according to strict criteria”.

Finally, as far as infrastructure planning is concerned, Zotano justified this as being necessary because of the numerous people who owned property in rural areas and were having problems in meeting legal requirements. “For this reason it must be this management team that governs the creation of sanitation systems, roads and other infrastructure and to negotiate agreements with the occupants so as not to create a special cost for the Council.

This same management team will also be responsible for completing the details of the Manilva Town Plan (PGOU), the blueprint for which has been on display for some months. On this subject, Zotano has indicated that he wishes to continue working with the architect for the Town Plan with the purpose of improving it where appropriate and final ratification because “Damián Quero is highly knowledgeable on the subject of town planning and development and through home a sound structural plan for Manilva can be created”.