Newsletter from Minority Delegado, Margaret Arnup, August 2008.

To all Cabrera Owners,
Welcome to the “News Letter” from your Minority Delegado in Cortijo Cabrera. Well it´s certainly hot right now in Spain, hope you are enjoying the weather and managing to keep cool. If you´re in England and not enjoying the weather get over here as soon as you can and soak up the sun.

As you may know in the majority of cases this news letter will be sent via email, however, if you receive a printed version of this, and you DO have an email address, could you please forward your email address to me at margaret_arnup@hotmail.com. This enables us to keep the cost of posting to a minimum, plus it enables us to send more information and quickly. Thank you to the owners that have forwarded their email addresses since starting this news letter.

Surgery Meetings
The last surgery meeting was held on the 17th July and was well attended. The next surgery meeting will be held on Thursday 25th September at 5:00pm in the Community room at Los Pastores. Please come along if you can. As usual we would ask if you have any questions, that require any research, could you please submit them to us via email or by post, before the meeting. This enables us to deliver a solution and answer to your questions/problems that may not only benefit you but all at the meeting.

Reminder – Job Roles of the delegados
Please note you don’t have to wait for the surgery meeting to report problems or issues, so I thought I’d just remind you of the job roles that the delegados hold and if you have any queries or issues you can contact them directly:-

At the surgery meeting the following were discussed:-

The surgery meeting I felt was mainly negative, despite our attempts to keep things going positively. It was felt at the meeting, perhaps not by the majority that attended this meeting, but by a sufficient few, who were extremely vocal in that we, the Junta delegados are not doing enough and that we are wasting our time as the developers will overrule with their majority vote.

This is not England, but Spain, and "mañana mañana" seems to happen a lot. Living in Spain has a lot of benefits, but one of the most frustrating things is to try and get things to happen sooner than they do. It is fairly obvious to most what needs to be done, what the problems are but, to find the solutions, and more importantly make them happen is sometimes a long drawn out battle. Trying to make everyone happy all of the time is just not going to happen.

The saying they have in Spain is “poco a poco” little by little. So we are chipping away and I, some say rather naively, believe that we can make things better than they are. To say we can´t means giving up.
You may think that we are not the best team to do this job, so at the surgery meeting the delegados reminded everyone that they could stand to be elected at the next AGM, and swap with one of us. However the reply we received was why bother you only get over ruled by the Developers. I´m sure you have all heard this said a good number of times.

If you feel that the developers or anyone else are doing something wrong against the interest of the community, then let us know exactly what that is.

As you know, we Delegados, don´t receive any remuneration to do this job, and the majority of the delegados have businesses or full time jobs to get on with as well. This does not mean that we take our jobs as Junta delegado lightly, quite the opposite.

With regards to the developers overruling anything we suggest – this has never been the case in all the time that I´ve been a Junta Delegado, and it is the same for my colleagues that also serve on the Junta.

In the few paragraphs that follow I have tried to explain the decision and voting process for us elected delegados:-

The Junta delegados, have what we call, Informal meetings and Formal meetings. (Please note this is not an AGM meeting)
The Informal meetings are to discuss any issues that come up throughout the year, and are normally attended by myself, Jo Chambers, Keith Sharpe, Tony Scane, Paul Melhuish and José Jerez, and if a vote is required we then have a Formal meeting. We are obliged to have at least two Formal meetings a year.
As in accordance the statues of the Junta de Compensación the “Formal” meetings are called giving one week notice together with an agenda of items to be discussed.
At this meeting, will be the President; Segundo Ramirez, Secretary; Jo Chambers, Treasurer; José Jerez, Mayor or representative from Turre Town hall, Junta Delegado; Paul Melhuish, Junta Delegado; Tony Scane, Junta Delegado; Keith Sharpe and myself the Minority Delegado.

At the meeting, with the exception of the Mayor, the voting system count is ONE MAN ONE VOTE! So the majority vote at this meeting means we get to be heard and we decide on a whole range of issues that affect our community.

At any of our meetings you will find that we do not sit and accept anything that is said to us, we challenge all the information and we speak out when we don´t agree with something. Sometimes there are raised voices, sometimes not. It’s not a walk in the garden to get your point heard either, as opinions can differ between us, which is how it should be.
I think it good to have so many different views put forward and collectively we agree on a way forward. The Junta should never be about one person whether it be the Secretary or the Treasurer, but I think that we may have been guilty in the past of EXPECTING one person to help us on everything. Lack of Spanish-speaking delegados has not helped us in the past. We have tried to remedy this; and now we have more Spanish speaking delegados and by each of us having a job role so the work load is shared as much as possible. If this does not work, then we will try again to remedy it.

As you know two delegados have to stand down each year and they can decide, if they wish to stand for re-election. This also gives you the opportunity to stand for election, if so you wish, and thus enable YOU as delegado to VOTE on things that affect your community.

Only at the AGM is the % vote applicable. Prior to the AGM, an agenda is drawn up. This agenda and its contents are agreed at a “Formal Meeting” mentioned above. The contents of this agenda can hold a subject that is of a significant importance to warrant a vote at the AGM.
The % vote is based on the size of the land that you own in Cabrera, and yes, you are correct that the Developers can if they wish overrule the majority owners, but you will also see that the Town hall also holds a very large % as well. I´ve never seen the developers use their % vote in the 5 ½ years that I´ve been here. They have left it to us to decide. These are the facts!

So lets not hear that very old worn out argument that “I can´t do anything for my community because of the developers”.
I think this statement has perhaps been used by certain people to explain their inactivity or reason for not getting things done. It´s an easy reply and one that most people are more than willing to believe.

I’m not saying developers are great in everything they do, but we could have a lot worse! Have you seen the development not to far from here, in a mountain area? If the developers sold up today, we would have another one tomorrow, who is to say they would be as sympathetic to the area? We are, after all, able to live in Cabrera in the first place because of past and present developers.
Again, we would ask:- If you feel that the developers or anyone else are doing something wrong against the interest of the community, then let us know exactly what that is and we can address it with them.

You can make a difference but only if you really want to. Let’s not keep leaving everything to one or two people; make excuses for not helping and then complain; there is a system in place for us to make a difference, let’s use it.

Not forgetting:-
We are not forgetting that people do genuinely have reasons to complain and we will endeavour to give them as much help and support as we can, in as much as the law allows us too.

Burglaries – There have been a number of burglaries in Cabrera and understandably, it has been extremely upsetting for the owners in Cabrera. At the time of the meeting it seemed to be affecting the village area in particular. A lot of frustration was expressed in that the CCTV camera image is not of sufficient quality to identify the number plates of a suspicious car. One of the owners that were broken into only has a mobile phone and not a land line, and also that there is no street lighting in the village area.

We know from experience that Burglars are known to watch the premises and owners of properties, before they commit the robbery. They sometimes rob in broad daylight and/or at night. So we ask that you are vigilant and report any suspicious looking characters.

It is apparent that the Local Police and/or Guardia are not that interested in trying to resolve the burglaries, which just adds to the frustration all the more.

It was suggested that we have a Neighbourhood Watch Scheme as we do in England. Jo Chambers very kindly arranged for a guest speaker, Jim Simpson, who is the regional co-ordinator of the Almazora Valley for Neighbourhood Watch, to speak on the subject of the setting up a Neighbourhood Watch Scheme in Cabrera & the surrounding areas, such as Cortijo Grande. The meeting held on Thursday 31st July at 5:00pm at Los Pastores Restaurant. Jim Simpson, an ex-policeman, explained how and why he started a Neighbourhood Watch Scheme, how it was initially received by the town hall and the police. Jim said that since the introduction of the Neighbourhood Watch Scheme, in some areas the crime rate has been reduced by up to 60%. He also stated that the Neighbourhood watch has made a tremendous difference to how the police now view the members of the community and the response that his community now receives from the police is better than he would expect to receive in the UK. So this is really good news. Steve Grattage has kindly volunteered to be lead co-ordinator for the Neighbourhood watch, and is supported by co-ordinators of zoned areas in Cabrera, who will report anything suspicious to Steve Grattage. We would like to thank and congratulate Steve for stepping forward. I´m sure we will all give him the support he needs. The scheme is still in it´s infancy stage at the moment, but I understand that you will be contacted by the Neighbourhood Watch individual co-ordinators for your zone in the very near future.

Street Lights in the village area – Street lights were part of the new infrastructure that was to take place, but as the infrastructure was held up, so to were the street lights. We are however, trying to look at ways to resolve this for the village area in particular – and as I write this I’m informed that we are making a study to see how we can bring the installation forward for the village area, but this would mean surface fixed cables and we would like to know, if there are any objections to this? Please write or email your response as soon as possible.

CCTV Cameras - The CCTV cameras, I understood, were put up more for a deterrent more than anything else. The quality was not sufficient to help in the most recent burglary, and I’m informed that in order to have a sufficient quality to read say a car licence plate with the headlights on requires a CCTV camera of a higher sophistication similar to police CCTV cameras. This can be very expensive, so we need some quotes from security firms for this. I know that we have some residents that are more experienced on this subject than us present delegados, so it they would like to step forward to help on the decision process of this, we would be grateful.

Telefonica – The telephone exchange under the arch is having some final work done, and is nearly completed.
The telephone and broadband connections will be done in phases. For each phase the Junta will contact the owners of houses who are included in that particular phase and ask them if they wish to be connected.

The first phase is the new area, before and past the horse ranch. We now have a list of the people, in this area, who wish to be connected and we hope for the connections to happen in September. We will be in touch with the owners in this phase in September to explain the process and give further details on dates for connection etc.,

The second Phase – we HOPE to be the village area – however, we have problems here in that Telefonica only like to use their conduit and this is not laid in the village area. I know this was explained at the other surgery meetings, and we have not got any further at this stage. We are going to try to do this “little by little”, so our plan is to firstly get Telefoncia here making connections to the people listed in the first phase in September and then move forward. It IS a slow process, but it´s moving forward.

More Phases – Once Telefonica have finished the connections in the first phase, and hopefully started on the second phase, we will then plan the third phase and so on. So therefore we will contact you as and when your phase comes up.

Electricity
There have been some developments regarding the electricity connections to properties. As you know Sevillana have stated that we need to be able to supply between 8.5kw to 11kw of electricity per household and that we need a new ringed transformer to do this. There have been numerous meeting and at the most recent meeting all the developers of Cortijo Grande, Cortijo Cabrera Pol 1 and Pol. 2, The Junta, and La Pilica have all agreed in principle to the proposed ringed circuit and for Sevillana to carry out the work. The costs are still to be decided and the splitting of these costs between all the relevant parties, including Sevillana, are still to be sorted out.

However, Sevillana have in the meantime agreed that owners in Cortijo Cabrera can be connected, from the under subscribed transformer that already exists in Cabrera, provided they have the correct paperwork i.e., licence of 1st occupation.

We understand that there are two cables that run from this transformer. The first cable has been handed over to Sevillana and they already have permission to connect people to this cable.
The second cable is in the process of being handed over to Sevillana. Once this has taken place, we hope more people can be connected.

Licence of 1st Occupation – These continue to arrive from Turre Town hall on a priority basis, as this is needed for the electricity to be connected.

Water – One unoccupied house was losing so much water that they used 40m3 in 2 days. Another has used over 200m3 in a month. These, plus someone filling a swimming pool without coordinating through Antonio caused a near emergency in the water supply, loss of pressure and more brown water in the taps. Please, Please remember our water is precious, avoid wastage where ever you can. Look at the Water Waste document that I have enclosed with this newsletter.

To give you an update of future investment: We are making a study & are considering installing a decalcification plant, industrial filters etc., also we are considering building a new water depositor, after the existing water depositor. We are contemplating putting the decalcification plant just after the new water depositor. These are just a few of the options available to us and we will write again, when I have more information for you.

In the meantime, PLEASE be mindful of water wastage.

Budget for 2009 The budget for 2009, is now being prepared, however, we would like to hear from you on what items you think should be included or excluded. PLEASE let us know what you think, email or write to any of the Junta delegados, this is your chance to make a difference.

Post Office – The pin number to the post room will be changed shortly and a new internal P.O.Box with an internal lever will be fitted to prevent anyone putting their hand in and retrieving mail. There is rota in place, where the Junta delegados take it in turns to deliver internal mail. This is done 3 times a week normally on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Open Sewer - At the meeting, Steve Grattage reported an “Open Sewer” next to the garden area in front of Hibiscus. Apparently this was an open sewer, but this was rectified 6 months ago. This has been bypassed with a more update system and the one that Steve referred to is no longer used. If this is still a problem please get in touch with us.

Smells from area behind Oasis Pool Area - This is being investigated as I write this, so when we have an answer I´ll come back to you.

Garden Waste The Junta only provides a location for disposal of Garden Rubbish during the winter months, when we know we can burn the garden waste. The Junta is not able to provide anything between May & October, as it is too dangerous to store garden waste during this period.

The Junta does provide a shredder for garden waste, which you would be expected to pay for the oil/fuel the shredder consumes. I understand that this is a small amount of money. Once the garden waste has been reduced to a manageable size, you can put it in a plastic garden bag, but then you must dispose of it yourself, but not on the mountain.
Most of the owners in Cabrera are able to avoid chopping anything down or cutting back garden´s during the summer because of this rule. We do realise that this is not always possible for some owners, but perhaps something that could be borne in mind in the future, other wise it´s the shredder.

Caterpillar Nests – Caterpillar nests are dangerous to animals – Caterpillars nest in all sorts of pine trees. In caterpillar season Antonio & Paco are always on the ball and will destroy any nests they see. If any resident spots one can they please inform Paul Melhuish and it will be dealt with quickly.

Mirrors – A mirror will be going up at the end of Calle del pastor & Paseo Jazmin, as this is a blind spot for cars pulling out.

If you´ve got this far into reading this news letter I thought I would ask the following question:-

Community Spirit – Does it still exist? Write and let me know, or have your say on the forum.

Finally Well there are plenty of things for you to let us know about!
If you have any comments or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact any of the Junta delegados.

Best Regards
Margaret Arnup
Junta de Compensación de Cortijo Cabrera – Minority Delegado.

See previous newsletters from Margaret here and here.