Thanks John for the pictures.

The most important piece of news from today’s meetings is that Castelló Town Council has pledged it’s support to Empuriabrava residents and the Resident’s Association in fighting this demarcation law. A little birdie tells me that the support comes from political pressure but who cares? Better late than never Town Hall!

Dear Client,

There have been a lot of discussions about the canals in Empuriabrava. Some of the information issued by the Local Authorities and the Port Captain’s office (Capitania) has not been exactly clear, and certainly not sufficiently detailed.

The Town Hall in Castelló d’Empuries has now issued a report in several languages explaining the laws and regulations and how they affect mooring owners.  The report can be downloaded via the following link.

http://www.castello.cat/upload/File/MarinaEmpuriabrava/ing.pdf
An opposition group has been formed, called the Owners Association of Empuriabrava (APE – “Asociación de Propietarios de Empuriabrava”), to deal in a legal and informative way with the issues relating to this matter.

In addition to this, there is another, much more URGENT matter at hand which is the marking of the demarcation (severance) line that the Spanish Government is attempting to make.

The Coastal Authorities of the Government are working their way around the country clarifying boundaries and what is public domain, what is private.  The turn of Empuriabrava has arrived.  As per Spanish law, all sea water is public property, and also all that is encroached by sea water also becomes public property.   From this “imaginary” line that they are in the process of identifying and attempting to enforce, a distance of 6m is to be marked which they are proposing to make as public domain, hence affecting all properties to a larger/smaller degree that are situated on the canals.

There are a series of meetings next week, namely on 29^th and 30^th September and 1^st and 2^nd October, for property owners, the date designated according to areas.  Many of you will not have received official citation to these meetings, (which in itself is a point for dispute), but the Association APE can inform you of the dates for each area.

www.ap-empuriabrava.com

This website is in various languages including English, and is extremely informative, well worth reading.

As this matter is of such importance and will affect all canal side owners in one way or another, it is VITAL that you be informed of your rights and what is expected of you.  The Association are offering their members (50,00 € to join, maybe one of the best investments you will make), models of representation, of how to file complaints and allegations, and the procedure to follow.  There is also a model that you can fill in and return to them if you are unable to attend these meetings next week and would like them to represent you.

While our Company policy is to remain unbiased and above all non-political, we urge you to join this Association in order to best defend your rights and together create a UNITED FRONT against any administrative decision that may affect those rights.

For those of you who are here next week, it is very important to attend the meetings (whether you have received formal notification or not).  If you are unable to attend, please refer to the website and request assistance from the Association.

Should you wish to contact us for further details, please do not hesitate in doing so.

Yours sincerely,

Veena Birtwistle

Different2

Member of the Oreilly Birtwistle Group

Now listen guys, this is very serious. Time is running out and if you have a property on the canals then you really need to do something about it. As Veena said in the above letter, you need to join the association to help protect your rights.

How important is this? Well did you know that last night there was a demonstration in Castelló? There was a protest march from the Cathedral to the Town Hall of around 500 concerned residents. It was even filmed by Spanish TV. I’m going to be putting photos of the march up on Flickr soon. Here’s the Flickr photos.
So what’s happening here? Property owners in Empuriabrava are being hit on two fronts: Mooring Fees and Demarcation Lines. I have a fridge magnet that says “Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much”  Man the barricades!

EDIT: I also popped down to the show on Monday and have added the first photo (hence the sunnier day).

You will find the boat show in the port area around the Nautic Centre.

For more information visit the Empuriabrava Boat Show website at http://firavaixell.com where there is a location map.

For those of us who live here it is always a pain that we only get postal deliveries once a week (if we’re lucky) and it is infuriating to go down to the post office and cue up for ages because there is only one person serving. Here’s hoping that improvements are actually made.

The city hall of Castelló d’Empúries and the manager of the channels (sic) of Empuriabrava, Port Ampuriabrava SA, entered into a contract on 9 August and how to regulate the water routes of Empuriabrava. The owners of anchorages are represented by the society Manteniment control i Supervisió de Marina d’Empuriabrava (MCSME), which opens on 16 August in the first floor of the community centre of Empuriabrava. The partners plan to improve both the aesthetics of the channels and to adapt the services to the needs of the users. The vested titles of the owners of anchorages are not going to change, but in order to finance the planned work they will be required to make financial contributions.

It’s the last bit that I like “…required to make financial contributions.” Is someone going to come round with a tin asking for support or is there going to be a new tax? I suspect the latter.

I hope that all of the businesses in Empuriabrava, especially those connected with tourism, will be asked to contribute as well because it is the canal system that make Empuriabrava unique and without it we would just be a beach.

For a full itinerary of events see our Fiestas Del Carmen web page.

The Town Council have solved the problem at a stroke. Parking has been banned between the bridge and the roundabout and the road into town has been split into two lanes; one for traffic turning left/straight on and and one for traffic turning right.

The new changes came into effect last Friday and I’ve noticed a huge difference both on Friday night and Saturday morning, two notoriously bad times to be going into town. One word of warning though: As the system is new, and as many people don’t know where they want to go anyway, there will be drivers who suddenly switch lanes.

This is a great improvement. Now all we need to do is get people to signal at roundabouts and the traffic will really get flowing!