Court probes Granada golf complex

Here is an article  from the "Olive Grove" newspaper, October 2008 - it was news to me any thoughts .........

"A GRANADA mayor has appeared in court over the construction of a controversial golf and residential project. Victor Sánchez, who leads the PSOE-run town council at Atarfe, is being investigated for alleged corruption.  The probe follows complaints by various political and environmental groups that Medina Elvira, which consists of 3,500 homes and a golf course, is “illegal.”
In 2007, Ecologistas en Accion, leftist group Izquierda Unida and Salvemos la Vega, a collective of local residents, complained to the state prosecutor in Granada that the complex not only invades a protected cattle track (via pecuaria), but that the regional government only passed a ninehole course – despite Medina Elvira having double that amount. And the land was sold to construction company Vladigolf SL for 3.6 million euros, an amount less than half of its market value of 8.4 million euros, according to the complainants. Following the conclusion of their investigation earlier this year, the state prosecutor discovered sufficient evidence to charge Sánchez.

During his appearance in front of judges in Granada, the council denied the allegations. Sanchez told the court that the project was “legal and enjoys the backing of various technical reports.” He was threatened with arrest if he did not attend the judicial hearing. This was after his legal team said the mayor would not make an appearance in court.
The case continues."

Medina Elvira is a completely legal development and has all licences in place. We also have all first occupation licences on our completed properties (something that would be impossible if this were not true). All our clients’ lawyers have been totally satisfied by the due diligence provided for the development. This article was published in October by a local paper called the “Olive Grove”; I suggest that they need to check their facts a little more carefully.

Sharon Hitchcock Sales & Marketing Director Peninsula

I’m not sure how accurate the translation is or how reliable this source is but again it seems to confirm that all is not rosy.

http://www.lukor.com/not-soc/sucesos/portada/08102345.htm

Furthermore I found this -

“The mayor of Atarfe is accused of several counts of administrative and planning corruption, involving

the Medina Elvira Residencial development and a golf course.” taken from a Greenpeace document

http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/espana/reports/destruction-at-all-coast.pdf

There has to be something in this surely?

Building licences and first occupation licences have been issued and approved by the Junta de Andalucia. Mortgages have been approved and signed with ALL of the major banks in Spain. Due dilligence by all clients lawyers involved in this development has been completed and approved. A bi-lingual college with over 200 students at present is up an running........none of this would be possible if the development was not legal. Anybody wishing further reassurance can contact me direct at sharon@peninsualpm.com.

Thank you

The Spanish article on lukor is very serious and detailed and talks about a whole bunch of potential iregularities not mentioned in the Olive Press article

I am working from a google translation of this article. If anybody is able to translate this properly and paste the contents on here it would be very informative and makes sure we can all get our facts straight. From what I can understand, the article suggests that the building area of the site has been expanded to include some protected land due to forged plans. And it suggests the water treatment plant which I would assume is necessary for our water supply from Cublias lake has been built without license and may not meet proper environmental conditions 

Maybe the whole case is a farce and will get thrown out of court, but courts of law do not do this stuff for fun and if these allegations are proven true then surely there WILL be repercussions for the site as a whole. Building licenses granted by a corrupt local government based on falsified plans built on land sold for half the proper price, some of which is protected... this does not bode well at all

I don't see how completions can continue until the case is resolved and all the implications are fully understood by all parties involved

For anybody not monitoring the Medina Elvira Golf message board, you should register this board in your profile and view this thread in the Golf board

Gaspar Lino the Managing Director of Peninsula has posted some crucial information regarding this court case on the Medina Golf message board

Like others,I am extremely surprised that Gaspar has chosen to give details of an individual's personal case on a public forum.

I will not be entering into any more debate on this.

Peninsula are insisting everything is legal and above board,and at the moment,I have no reason to believe otherwise.I will leave the matter to my lawyer,who,I can promise you, will be ensuring that Peninsula fulfill all their contractual obligations,just as I intend to do.

As I say,I can see no purpose in all this continued speculation,rumour ,guessswork and counter-rumour.Let's leave it to the professonals we are paying to act on our behalf.

That's what I'm doing anyway.

 and over 4 years later ..............

http://www.europapress.es/andalucia/noticia-alcalde-atarfe-psoe-recurre-auto-le-imputa-licencias-medina-elvira-20130303113213.html

Peninsula PM and Gaspar Lino have a few questions to answer