It appears that the Motril Town Hall owes 30,000 euros in back rent on a residence for the elderly – the landlord has threatened to evict the 350 elderly residents.

Whilst the Town Council is struggling to pay its staff their salaries – September salaries have still not been paid – they are now confronted by the fact that they haven’t paid the rent for a building since February 2011. This municipal dependency, which is a day centre for the elderly located in Calle Cyca, is one of many that has rent arrears.

The Landlord, or better said, the Landlady, wants to reclaim her property from the non-paying tenant; i.e., the Town Hall, even if it means the 350 residents losing their day centre. And things are moving fast because she already has a judicial order for the eviction if the debt is not paid ‘swiftly.’

The Vice-Mayor and Head of the Social-Action-Area department, Ángeles López Cano admits to the debt but is calling for calm, especially amongst the 350 affected users, saying that nobody was going to be thrown out on the street. She said that the proprietor is negotiating with the Town Council whilst the latter is searching for a new premises with a more ‘economic’ rental price, because the one concerned is around 2,000 euros a month.

In the meantime, one of the opposition parties, the CA, is highly critical of the fact that the ruling party has let the rent drop so far into arrears. Its spokesperson pointed out that if the ruling party were to axe one of their ‘advisory posts’ in the council then the debt would be sorted and the day centre working perfectly.

(News: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)