(21-12-2018, 07:31 PM)Sam Wrote: Installed the app to see how it works and I was able to set it for Oliva or Puerto del Rosario Ayuntamientos. Shame we don't have it running in Antigua Ayuntamiento too.
Come
April we
SHOULD have it but based on the notes from a recent community meeting I doubt it see section 2 -
Citizens’ Participation Meeting
13th
December 2018
1. Meeting with Ambassador to Spain, Simon Manley
Simon Manley held a meeting in Corralejo last month, and invited the Mayor and Councillors for a pre-meeting talk. Debbie Edgington attended with a list of questions. Nothing much new could be said as things are just not known. Basically, if the deal is accepted then the majority of things will carry on as they are until 2020. In the event of a no-deal, for those expats whose residencia is 5 years or older, the majority of things will not change. However, it is unknown for those whose residencia is less than 5 years old.
One of the questions Debbie asked was about voting rights. It is still understood that expats will lose all their voting rights here. For those that have been here 15 years or more, and have no right to vote in the UK, this means that they will completely lose all rights to vote in any country. Debbie pointed out that that would be illegal and against the European Court of Human Rights. That had obviously not been considered, and Mr Manley was unable to answer.
Deal or no deal, it seems at this moment that the British will no longer be eligible to stand in politics, and British Councillors will have to resign.
However, Britain and Spain are still working to agree many things, but Britain is unable to legally work on any individual country agreements until after Brexit.
Pedro Sanchez, Spain’s Prime Minister, has publicly stated the Spain will continue to maintain the British living in Spain, whether or not there is a deal.
Debbie warned all expats to ensure that all their paperwork is correct and up to date as soon as possible.
Another question Debbie asked Simon Manley, was about pensions. He could only reply that if there is a deal pensions would be ok, but if there was no deal he couldn’t reply. I didn’t get to ask Debbie what this exactly meant, but assume that it is purely the payment directly into a Spanish bank, and not that expats won’t receive their pensions!
Debbie informed us that the British government currently pay Spain £265 million per annum to cover hospital bills of British expats, where Spain only contributes 10 million to the UK.
2. Ayto Antigua & Tenencia Alcaldia – New Digital System
At the last meeting, Debbie informed us that the Ayuntamiento had a new digital system in place, but it was more than useless and basically the council were in a mess! The company that installed the system only has the contract for one year. After that year it could be that a new company will install a totally different system, and the whole thing would start again from scratch!
Unfortunately, her update was that the situation was in fact getting worse! The new system is not compatible with the old, and it seems that they are currently having to run BOTH systems, which is doubling the work required. She gave an example of a family of 5 applying for the travel certificates. The staff will have to enter the information for each person as each action requires a
new file to be opened. None of the systems are linked, plus both systems are extremely slow, and can take up to 20 minutes for file!! In the Caleta office there are further problems as there is often only one person working, while the other is on holiday. Debbie also informed us that a lot of information is getting lost and the council is basically at a standstill!
Debbie herself does not have access to the system, and when needing information, or to input information, she has to go through her technical assistant. If he is on holiday then she cannot gain access to the required information.
Debbie understands that the Cabildo, who also have a new digital system, are in an even worse situation.
Debbie advised everybody to get themselves a digital signature. Once you have this you will be able to obtain things such as the travel certificate online, renew your empadron, do your taxes, etc. Also, if you do this online there are no charges made. They also have the majority of it translated into English as well. To obtain your digital signature you need to go to Puerto del Rosario. With your back to the main Church, you will see an old building in front of you, and you get it from there. Ask for
Firma Electronica.
3. Christmas Lights Castillo/Nuevo Horizonte
The Council had a budget of 105,000€ for renting Christmas lights. Debbie duly applied for it back in
April 2018. Unfortunately, her application was returned for being ‘too early’. This happened a few times, despite Debbie’s explanations of how much time and work has to be organised to get the decorations up. On top of that the digital system caused further problems. By the time her actions could be implemented it was too late to get tenders for the rental. She asked if they could now purchase the lights instead of renting, but as the funds were in the ‘rental’ budget it could not be moved to the purchase column. In the end it was too late to be organised properly, and the Council just put the decorations up in Antigua instead of Caleta, as the mayor wanted.
The Ayuntamiento is not allowed to recruit any new additional staff by law, and the current staff cannot cope with the work load. They have just two electricians for the whole region, and one has been off sick! So even if they could get the Christmas lights they had nobody to put them up! They have had to outsource an electrician to cover the New Years Eve festivities (one has to be in attendance) as the council electrician is earning too much overtime and his boss won;t let him work any more hours.
4. Budget 2019
The budget is more or less the same as last year (sorry I didn’t get the figure).
5. New Contracting Laws for Public Institutions (March 2018)
There are new contracting laws saying how they can spend the budget. The new law was supposed to help small businesses, but in practice it is actually doing the opposite and preventing a lot of work actually getting done and stopping public works.
The law dictates that every job must go out to tender, but there is then a budget of 15,000€ per company. This is proving a nightmare. She gave an example of purchasing electrical cable, where there were two tenders, but one company had already had their 15,000€ from another job and the other company didn’t have enough stock – no cable can be purchased!
The Ayuntamiento still have 20 million euros in the bank that they are not allowed to touch!
The Major, Juan Jose Cazorla Hernandez, has announced that he will not be representing the party next year. This is believed to be because he is so frustrated with his hands being tied so much. He has always believed in tourism and always wanted Caleta de Fuste to be the first in line when it came to the budget. Other mayors apparently have the opposite view and spend on the villages first.
Debbie Edgington stated that, if she is allowed, she will stand again. However, if she wouldn’t be able to stand she had been named as a ‘person of confidence’, which means she can help out.
6. Christmas/New Year 2019 Activities
Debbie distributed a leaflet showing the activities being held in the Plaza each Friday up to, and including, Friday 28th
December.
7. Question Time
The question was raised as to the matter of works on the beach. Debbie reported that there is no budget allocated to the beach in next year’s budget. They have also been advised that they are not allowed to do remedial works themselves and claim back expenses either.
Before the meeting began, I had jokingly mentioned that scooters were not on the agenda, and Debbie said that it wasn’t because she was fed up with it all. I suspect that with the council in such turmoil the legalities of the scooters may have taken a back seat.
Next meeting first week in
February – to be confirmed.
Fuerteventura
