Mojácar City Council recently held two consecutive extraordinary plenary meetings, the first of which featured on the agenda the approval of management services for the new Senior Residence and Day Centre and, the town’s Equal Opportunities Plan for Men and Women.

The second session, classed as urgent, focused on the Mayor’s Office proposal for the application for an emergency procedure towards the processing of the Council’s General Plan for Urban Planning and Strategic Environmental Assessment. This could then reduce the administrative deadlines by half, as well as other legal issues within the Regulating Laws for Public Administrations.

Mojácar’s Mayor, Rosmari Cano, stated in the meeting that she intends to give “absolute priority” to Mojácar’s Plan (PGOU) and hopes to have it approved in 18 months by closely monitoring all their necessary reports, including those dealt with by other Administrations.  According to article 5 of Decree Law 31/2020, it will be dealt with as a matter of preference through the Government departments involved in the environment and urban planning relating to their strategic assessment and approval.

Mojácar’s PGOU, as those of many other Andalucían municipalities, had been put on hold due to legal resolutions and additional new regulations,  that had forced many Town Councils to restart their procedures.  The Junta de Andalucía’s Governing Council, in response to the request made by the Ministry of Development, Infrastructure and Land Management, has now given the green light to the application for urgent processing towards urban planning approval, thus reducing timelines by half.

Streamlining the bureaucratic processing for these urban plans will help speed up the recovery of activities as soon as the health situation improves and hopefully combat its negative effects on the economy.  The future promotion of growth and, attracting capital for the creation of resources and jobs, would be a very welcome and important boost in the current crisis.