Friday, April 15, 2011
Europe Correspondent Ann Cahill looks at the case of one Irishwoman fighting for thousands of homeowners.
AN IRISHWOMAN has brought the plight of thousands of expats who retired to Spain only to have their homes threatened with demolition to the European Parliament.
As a result, MEPs will consider how they can refuse to give the regional governments EU funds until they rectify the situation.
Kilkenny woman Maura Hillen retired to the idyllic valley of Almanzora, surrounded by vineyards and orange groves, in the south of Spain just three years ago. She gave up her high-powered job with a Swiss bank in London with the intention of enjoying the Spanish sunshine with her Welsh husband, John.
Instead, as president of a local organisation, she spends her days fighting for her neighbours who live in the 12,697 properties that the Spanish regional government in Almeria says are illegal and must be demolished.
She is one of the lucky ones who, because of a stroke of a bureaucratic pen, will be able to keep her home.
But Helen Prior and her husband, Len, are not so lucky. The sight of their €450,000 villa being destroyed by a wrecking ball as the couple lay prostrate with grief has been watched by thousands on YouTube.
MEPs listened in shocked silence as the 70-year-old Berkshire woman explained how they did everything right — choosing the site, checking it and planning permission, employing a local solicitor and paying the deposit through a local bank.
They got their water and electricity connected, got permission to landscape the surroundings — including building a swimming pool — and to convert the garage to a workshop.
Then, on May 6, 2008, the town hall told them their planning permission had been revoked by a court held in secret and that they had 15 days to demolish their home and remove the rubble.
They hired lawyers and lodged a case in the highest court in the land in Madrid. But before it could be heard, there was a knock on the door on January 9 and they were given two hours to get their belongings out before the bulldozer went to work.
The court found in their favour but the authorities have kept them busy appealing rulings and, to add insult to injury, have now asked for a psychiatric assessment to prove the couple have suffered stress and hardship in the last two years.
"We are old-age pensioners. We do not deserve this," Helen said, as the video of the destruction was played to the Petitions Committee of the European Parliament.
Maura Hillen explained there are hundreds, if not thousands, of mostly Irish and British couples living in the area, many for years. "They are waiting for the knock on the door to be told their home has been declared illegal," she said.
The regional governments, she explained, introduced new planning laws to protect areas of high scenic and environmental quality — but for some reason the local councils that give out the basic planning licenses did not implement them.
"Now they are trying to squeeze the camel back through the eye of the needle to ‘restore order’. Some people have no water or electricity. Most of the people are elderly. And Spanish people also have been affected. Because of the ruckus we have kicked up there is a lack of appetite to demolish more just now — but you cannot take anything for granted," she said.
Much of it is also down to corrupt politicians, planners and others looking to line their pockets. The committee agreed to see how they could pursue the issue. It has asked the European Commission to look at how the demolitions are breaching EU laws — their power is limited to this.
Sligo MEP Marian Harkin said that following the Irish case makes one consider how their European-given "freedom of establishment" is affected, as well as the right to the free movement of people and money around the European Union.
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