The way the town hall operate through the Tributaria office is that they delegate all “Tax” collection to this quasi public body which has wide ranging powers to force the collection of monies due for which the town hall pays a large fee. In doing this work however they will become privy to which bank you pay from even if you don’t use DD. In addition the Town Hall has recently contracted a large legal practise to chase bad debtors. They do this because they were left a €44m debt by the last Mayor and were not allowed by the last Government to set a budget to do any thing different only repeat the spending as previously budgeted. This is the first year that the embargo has been lifted.

The net result is that the Tributaria are in a very powerful position they can freeze your bank account(s) if any tax or fee goes unpaid. That is a desperate situation to be in if you pay your utilities or mortgage from one of your accounts. The gas, water, electricity, internet will cut you off in an instant if you do not pay and the cost and delay of reconnection you just do not want.

i know this to be the facts because I mounted my own embargoe on the EUC fees some time ago and having not paid one 1/2 year payment within weeks they were threatening by registered letter to freeze my account.

In addition but quite separately one electricity bill in ten years went unpaid for one month due to an error by the bank, within days we had a registered letter on a Monday threatening disconnection and they would have cut us off on Thursday morning if we did not pay in cash at their bank between 9 & 11 am. It was a dam close run thing but we just made it and remained connected but we did not know except we could switch the lights on on Thursday night.

It is odd though that the portacabin opposite the commercial center is allowed to continue when just the same rules should apply there as to Hoya 19. In addition all the apartments in Vista and a house in Lomas which operate as commercial premises with little apparent disruption. It seems the town hall reacts to some and not to others. Maybe it is or was brown envelopes or “enchufe” that makes the difference. Perhaps the Town Hall should do some house cleaning visit Esuri with their eyes open and close all non-approved commercial operations until the Communidad makes a decision. Perhaps the long term future of Esuri would be best served by withdrawing the application to the Communidad since Esuri already has an over provision of built commercial units not occupied (as does Ayamonte itself).

Also they might just think a little more long term if the commercial centre is to open in my lifetime it would need these small enterprises to be in there as seed corn if it is to survive. It would also need a loss leader such as an Aldi to attract a wider area than Esuri and they would have to think long as well.

it is so lopsided the shop (and we love Amalia to bits) somehow survives and grows when a new venture with the support of at least 500 “long stayers” and the promise to grow more desperately needed ventures such as bike hire and beach days for the “short stayers” is summarily closed. It just increases the feeling that all is not as it should be .