Jon-Bxl

Hi

After over a decade in CE - where we have had SO MANY rumours and whispers, most of which haven't transpired, I must be mad to even open the door to good news! Some people never learn!

So perhaps I need to temper the news with caution

However I heard least week that the 4.26m euros from MF has finally emerged (with 1.7m lost) to be used for sewage, roads and green spaces. If this is to be believed - its great news. (caution: Ayamonte needs the money, so I hope if (or after) they take anything, then any money that possibly ends up in pockets and brown envelopes - we will still be left with a nice packet for this work we have waited for. Finally, lets hope, that the contractors will actually deliver a quality job!) I sincerely hope that in a few years we will (at least) see some proper and quality infrastructure - not a badly planned and cheap delivery.

If this is true of course! I haven't heard this being mentioned on the forum - the meeting re this was on the 26th. Normally this news would have exploded here.

Wow great news about the hotel etc from the 'northern coalition'. EsuriJohn is (as always) a mine of information. This would be significant news of course and I am comforted with the fact that it HAS been reported here.

(caution: I am not holding my breath. Lets see what actually happens. Like John, I will wait till I see the cranes go up... but I add that I also want to see trucks ferrying back and forth and people working there. We had cranes up, doing nothing, for years)

Finally the years-old rumours of a Thai/Asiatic resto seem to be coming to a fruition. Anything like that has to be big news. (caution: we have a couple of columns erected - something is going on. I will wait and see how the final construction looks and if we will actually have a resto there. It seems a tad far out - to capture more than the CE population)

With the potential of more new construction; more people in Esuri (we were surprised at how full our car park was last year); Infrastructure projects; New restos; and a hotel that actually looks good and (finally) welcoming at the entry of CE - things may be looking up - after a LONG malaise at CE.

This could be a bit like dominos (no not a new pizza joint - heaven forbid ) - but as the area becomes more developed and the 'detritus' gets cleared out - and the area becomes more attractive, with a significantly larger population (rotating and fixed) this could attract more investment. Like 19H being re-opened some resto/bar at the best location (IMO) in CE - just above the 'local' (AKA shop). Also perhaps medical facilities - and at least a couple of the things we were sold at the beginning.

Even with all the post-crisis crises and hassles .. and ALL the upsets we have had: One thing shines through for me: We have still loved coming to CE.


Some huge positives - even though CE was/is in a mess.

Its location surrounded by nature, bordered on a blue-broad ocean and fresh air (nearest chimneys many 10's of Kms away) . A 2-country life (the nearest resto from CE being in Portugal). Lovely historic Spanish town on the doorstep. Airport nearby. Amazing beaches and weather..... and the perhaps best thing ... many wonderful people! I'm sure others can add their ideas too.

Maybe the 'future is bright' - the tagline of Orange and that means we get fibre broadband available as well!

Lets see.... I'm feeling good .... but ..... proceed with caution

Jon

Jon-Bxl

Just a thought: Wouldn't it be great if they put this money in a separate account and diverted all CE-specific invoices into that. That way the money would be singled out from all the other projects the town hall has. Of course that would save 'leakage', I'll call it the 'Tena solution'

Maybe they are planning on doing that anyway, I don't know. 'Chance would be a fine thing'

Jon

Luz liver

There was a complete schedule of works to be done. Handed out at the meeting with the Mayor. I got a copy but gave it to Paul Kelly of the residents association. I believe it's published in the Members Area of the CERA website.

Jon-Bxl

As you can see I am a bit concerned about how this money will be allocated... then spent.

1. We have SOME funds allocated from the town hall anyway, based on our taxes. With or without the MF money.
   
2. Then we have the 'New MF money'

CE should benefit from BOTH of these.

Also if there is money left over from the schedule of works - that should stay allocated to CE, only. After all we are already paying more than the Ayamonte residents and its questionable that (1) above is equivalent to what we pay.

Finally I would be further suspicious if the schedule of works - once contracted out, proposals in and then costed, would magically be the same as the MF money!

This is why I said that we should have a separate account for the MF money to use for the NEW scheduled works.... ONLY. If we bundle it all together, I seriously doubt that we would benefit 100% from this.

I guess I am saying is that we need some oversight on the way this is spent.

Too much experience with the Spanish Authorities I suppose...

Jon

Luz liver

As I understand it there are no decisions to be made by the Town Hall. The 4.2 million euros has to be used in ways defined in the original documentation. Don't know who were parties to said documentation. The monies ARE held in a specific bank account and are not sloshing around in the Town Hall.

Jon-Bxl

That's great - lets hope the money stays there. And is ring-fenced for CE.

Someone however has to manage the delivery of the schedules - and so far it is the town hall that have discussed all this with us.

So I wonder, who is responsible to manage the process of contracting, proposals, decisions etc to ensure that the money is properly spent.

If not the Town Hall - then anybody know who - will make the decisions, please?

We need to get in with them, I suggest.

Jon

keithBT

I don't suppose the works includes reconnection of the street lighting from the motorway to the CE bridge. My wife and I hate that dark section in Winter.

MikeJ

Mind you, once they have paid off the nearly 10 years of debt owed to Comfortservi there may not be a lot left. Everybody now needs to pay the EUC bills or the money will just leak away covering those debts.

EsuriJohn

Sorry Jon that’s not how it works! The bank guarantee money is set against specific items as set out in the planning approval and it is in a separate account as shown to both CERA & EUC not sure if or how much interest that pays on €4.2m. What the Mayor has asked to be done is to break the finishing work into three blocks, green areas, roads, pavements and drains and water purification and sewerage disposal. The clever trick the mayor admitted to was that originally the approvals were for a town of 18,000 people ie. as big as Ayamonte itself with lots of green areas such as parks and green verges with trees. He says that we can longer afford the water both environmentally & financially so he will cut back on the green package. Also he is assuming the ultimate population will be around 14,000 so he does not need to spend so much on the third block any savings to be spent on block 2. However when I asked what he thought to do about TASSA I AM SURE HE DID NOT KNOW WHERE IT WAS OR HOW BIG IT WAS. No answer to the question though!

We have very little money allocated by the townhall since the only thing adopted so far is the street lighting for which they pay the leccy bill but repairs are painfully slow. Good news is the lights on the viaduct into Esuri came on this week! Now in our third year without any lights. They also pay the watering bill but I don’t know why.

The final twist is that with the sale of Fadesa assets there is €1.2 m coming to the TH in back IBI and €0.72 to the EUC when I asked him if he would give an assurance that the IBI money would spent in Esuri he conflated the two together to €2 m and avoided answering.

However we do live in a wonderful corner of paradise with brill food, great beaches in two countries and endless sunshine and life for the oldies is short.

Jon-Bxl

Thanks John for the clarification. Though I got a big chunk of it right. I understood about the 3 blocks as I mentioned earlier but I knew there would be 'issues' re the allocation of the money. I also didn't understand who was managing this if not the TH. Of course the TH is knee deep in this.

I'm glad I started this thread as now some of the details come out. And as I implied this is going to get a little 'messy', as there are big sums involved and everyone wants a piece of the money. Including of course that big 'power base' that exists in Ayamonte. As you could tell from my posts I really wish that this money is wisely spent for the benefit of CE - but sadly after seeing 13 years of 'the system' - I suspect that we aint going to get a good deal.

Emotionally, I also fear low quality work at the end. I suspect the implementation will be the cheapest quality, in order to cream off the biggest profits. I fear that there will be other ways we lose money, based on my mistrust of the system and the 'honesty' of the process

Good news is that this is in a separate account - and yes I understood that there was always a schedule to use that money.

Also that this money isn't earmarked to back debts to comfortservi, as Mike suggested. This worried me as I hadnt thought of this and Mike 'knows his onions'! Though they could well be involved in parts of the delivery of the schedule.

It also appears that the schedule of works is bigger than the 4.2 m - so they are tuning the works to get as much in as possible. This makes sense - but again I believe there are possibly some big 'leakages' here.

Also that we are in fact allowed 2 chunks of money, as I mentioned. Plus 1 more that I missed. The ring-fenced 4.2m and also the 'normal money' for works we pay through our taxes. Of course we are used to paying a lot more and not getting our fair share. As someone said years ago on the forum we are seen as the 'gold card' holders in CE. I hope the influx of Spanish will help us here to drive through a more equitable system. They also have to pay more living in CE, but have a better intuitive understanding of the situation.

The one I missed was of course the 1.2m from asset sales + 072m (thanks for clarifying)... but of course they are avoiding giving details about that. Surprised?

As the title suggests this is a good news thread, but am I in fact mad to suggest this as the details come out? Caution is of course what we all should have as this pans out.

There is potentially good news in CE. We have some money for improvements. I doubt in the end we will get what we really deserve for the total of all the dosh we have paid or received. I also fear a low quality implementation.

Of course the devil is in the details.... and when large sums of money are involved - let's say it gets 'complicated', to get a part (if not all) of our fair share!

But the whole environment - could well be a step up from 2017 - which is what we need, and thus good news. As well as living in a wonderful (quote) Corner of the earth (Jamiroquai)

Jon

MikeJ

Without knowing all the facts about the distribution of any money it's very hard to work out where it will end up. However, the EUC has been running on credit for all of its existence - a look at the accounts messy and infrequent as they are - shows that the expected income from taxes has not been forthcoming and yet the outgoings have continued. This just do not balance and there appears to be a black hole. Most of this credit is the debt owed to Confortservi. I can't see how if the EUC receives €1.2m or more that it can avoid paying down some of this debt. As John is now on the board then I'm sure is far more aware than I am. I am just speculating based on what little knowledge there is.

One thing that we still don't have is transparency!

Jon-Bxl

Hi Mike

I totally agree.

I was pleased to have confirmed that the 4.2m was outside the reach of confortservi. And in a separate account. Your point sparked a concern I hadn't thought of.

The 1.2m is already allocated to the TH etc, outside of our control. (Not that we have any control on the rest!!)

The thread through these posts is that the historic lack of transparency (to say the least) only increases suspicions from us.

I am not at all confident that this will be handled correctly - and I also speculate that this may not be handled completely honestly either.

Finally I will bang on again about poor quality and a cheap implementation.

After this 'windfall' we are back to the old situation of EUC/IBI etc.

Jon

EsuriJohn

Things on the last couple of post have got a bit mixed the debt to comfiserve was created in a legal sense when as his last act in his only year in office Mr Tipper created a bank guarantee to confiserve for the accumulated outstanding debt. Nothing the new board could do about it about €0.73m to be paid. It is just coincident that the outstanding debt from Fadesa is about the same and could be used to settle that debt (and should be in my opinion) then a fresh start could be made with a new contract. In point of fact income over the last couple of years has just about matched outgoings to both Player Managing and confiserve so the debt should not have increased but of course income is not a straight line graph but two peaks in June and December which means payments are not even. PM have managed to claw back some smallish outstanding debts but until the Fadesa money arrives no big ones. There is a new contract jointly with the TH to employ specialist lawyers to chase the outstanding debts starting with the big ones first.

The contracts for the 3 blocks will be let by the TH in packages so the easiest could start soon (how often have we heard that) they are to be managed by technical staff but not sure whether that will be TH staff or outside consultants.

I have to say that the work confiserve do on the Boulevard in particular is good and just now with the little rain we have had it looks really good. However up where we live it is a totally different storey. Verges look shabby, most street trees are dead no street lighting what do we get for our €2000 per annum IBI+EUC NOT MUCH AS FAR AS I CAN SEE!

Jon-Bxl

It looks like, with the exception of the clarification of some of the details, we are all in agreement with our concerns. Well we've been living with this mess for over 10 years, so know the score!

However to bring it back to 'Good News', as OP I will go off topic... something that for me is great news.

What an amazing launch and recovery of boosters of the Falcon Heavy rocket on Tuesday, on the news yesterday. Wow a step forward, potentially for both space exploration and perhaps earth transportation also!

Space junk is a big problem, but Elon Musk has earned the right to have a 'bit of a laugh' putting his car in orbit. I wonder what 'the aliens' will think of that.... as they prioritise 'first contact' and thus (obviously) make their way to our wonderful 'corner of the Earth' (Jamiroquai)

I finagled that one to go



Jon

bitmanev

because it's Elon then wasting money and creating space junk is alright?
not me thinks hence not replacing my current EV with a Tesla