For those of you who didn’t know it, Santa Fe translates to Holy Faith and the lack of faith in question is whether the Town Hall will pay a couple the money it owes them before their house is auctioned off by the bank.

Esperanza and Alberto hold the concession for the municipal tow truck in Santa Fe, which is just to the north of the City of Granada. The Town Hall owes them a staggering 250,000 euros for services rendered. This failure to honour its debt has led the couple to having their house repossessed and put up for auction.

The Town Hall, which recognises the debt, said that it would take the affair to the next plenary meeting, but later the Mayor, Sergio Bueno (PSOE) said that he had not had time to do it, according to Grúas Taboada (the couple’s business name).

The couple spent the night on the town-hall steps, “getting used to the idea” of not having a roof over their heads, they said. Esperanza (Hope) says that it is shameful that they are the ones paying the consequences of the Town Hall not honouring its debts.

Alberto took up the contract for the removal of badly parked and abandoned cars in 2008, covering not just Santa Fe, but also the other towns covered within the Consortium of Vega Sierra Elvira. He has been chasing the Town Hall for the last three years, but to little avail.

This all came to light on the 26th of September, but the next day saw developments: the wife chained herself to the banisters in the town-hall building for four hours, just in case the problem might have slipped the Mayor’s mind. Around two in the afternoon a municipal policeman cut the chain and she was towed away. She explained that the law court had told her that she would have to find 215,000 euros, to buy the house back and another 84,000 for the costs of the auction and that she had 20 days to do it.

The couple had stopped paying the mortgage on their house because they had to pay the rent on the car compound. Grúa Taboada wanted to scrap 21 of the 31 cars in it, but the Mayor wouldn’t let them, so that they had to keep the compound open. Furthermore the Councillor for the Municipal Tax Office says that they were only aware of a debt of 18,000 and that had they known that it was more, they could have included it within the financial help from the Central Government to pay off debts with local traders and suppliers.

The next day (28th) family and friends, convoked via facebook, congregated in front of the Town Hall to show their support for the family, where they met supporters of the Mayor and Councillors, similarly convoked, who were there not only to back the role of the Town Hall, but also to denounce a turn-coat councillor, Anabella Camacho, who had accepted the first bill from the company on the 31st of March but hadn’t put it through the books until the 21st of March this year – this was the reason that the debt was not included in the Central Goverment’s scheme to pay all outstanding debts to local businesses.

Just a quick note of explanation: The Central Government, aware that town halls all over Spain owed money to local businesses, which was forcing them out of business, gave all town halls a set period to declare all that they owed. The total was then forwarded to each town hall to clear the debts.

Anyway, the Councillor for the Municipal Tax Office considers that the couple and the wayward councillor are in cahoots, but quite how that works out is not clear.

So, Ladies and Gentlemen, let me sum this up in the following manner before it drags on any further: In a town called Faith, there is a woman called Hope, who if not paid soon will living off Charity.

(News: Santa Fe, Granada, Andalucia)