The Almuñécar Town Hall has been fined over its treatment of Urbanización Punta de la Mona de los Berengueles – making them pay infrastructure maintenance bills.

A provincial court in Granada sentenced them to pay a periodic penalty payment for not obeying an earlier court sentence obliging them to foot the costs of the area maintenance of the Punta.

The urbanizacion representatives and the Town Hall have been at loggerheads for years over this issue; i.e., the cost of maintaining the streets within the Punta de la Mona. Until now, the residents have had to pay for it out of their own pockets despite being local tax contributors; i.e., IBI.

Now, the said P.P.P. might sound a risible sum – 150 euros, but it will continue to rise in amount every 20 days until the Town Hall bites the bullet.

The Town Hall was ordered to assume the responsibility for maintenance in June and October, but has completely failed to budge.

The Councillor for the Economy has admitted that part of the 5.7m euros requested by the Town Hall to help pay off debts to local traders will instead go to paying off court fines, etc.

The Punta de la Mona was laid down in the 60’s and some of the most expensive properties in the municipality are on this headland with the most privileged views. Property owners pay anywhere between 500 and 5,000 euros in community fees, yet you won’t find any pavements or street lighting on the Punta.

The Town Hall’s reasoning for not taking on the Punta‘s infrastructure upkeep is that if they do, they will be opening their doors to being responsible for other urbanizaciones in the future.

So, the Town Hall wants to strike a deal with the Punta, but there is really no reason why the residents should budge. If the Town Hall does not comply it will lead to criminal charges against town-hall bureaucrats that could have them barred from holding public office for nine years.

Editorial comment: It is really quite surprising that a town hall will bleed homeowners right from requesting planning permission to their IBI payments; demanding 20% either in funds or land for “social use” on any urbanizacion project, yet when it comes to providing services that homeowners are paying for through their local taxes, suddenly it’s not the town hall’s problem. You needn’t look any further than Carmenes del Mar for a classic example…

(News: Punta de la Mona, Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)