Urbanización Dream Hills CRTA. Torrevieja – Orihuela KM.3 E-03189 Orihuela-Costa N.I.F. – H53768719 |
Inversiones TorreviejaPlza. De la Constitución, Nº 8 B E-03180
Torrevieja ( Tel: 965 710 355 Fax: 966 700 427 |
Presidents Annual Community Review 2004/2005
0 Introduction
Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to welcome you to the annual general meeting of the urbanisation Dream Hills. In last years Annual Review, I said that every start is difficult but I can assure you that this year was difficult too, and it seems to me that running an urbanisation will always be difficult. Before I start this Annual Review with an outline of the main developments, achievements and obstacles, together with the current situation, I want to thank all the members of the committee in supporting me this year. In particular I want to say thank you to Pat Farnaby who is constantly updating the Dream Hills Website. Bill Allan who repainted and repaired the benches from the pool area, and he did a lot of other small jobs when ever they were necessary and of course, Kath Allan for her secretarial work. Gerry McIntyre, I want to thank for installing the american bar inside the Community Centre and Tid Clifford who made the curtains for “La Casita”. Linda Sims, who organized “La Casita”, thanks to her and her husband Mike there are a lot of activities running already and after my report she will give you some input about the Community Centre. Mags and Bob Harris for not only installing some dog signs but also being heavily involved in a number of community matters. I want to express my thanks to Roger Hudson who was always a mentor for me and who is doing a lot of communication with neighbours through the Dream Hills Website. Also I want to thank Ana Rosa our Administrator who has always been available when ever a problem had to be solved. Finally, and you will appreciate that there are many more names I could mention, but I would like to highlight Tid and Mick Clifford for welcoming you and ushering you at the door. And last but not least I want to thank all the neighbours who supported me at the Torrevieja Half Marathon. Now I start this General Meeting with the Introduction of the Committee Members….
I Committee Members
The current Committee consist of:
President: Stefan Pokroppa Nº 557
Vice-President: Roger Hudson Nº 70
Christine Bingham Nº 133
Mags Harris Nº 269
Linda Sims Nº 303
Gerry Mc Intyre Nº 327
William Harry Allen Nº 571
Pete Hemming Nº 833
Chris Mc Nary Nº 859
Secretary: Kath Allen
Please remember each Phase has a Representative (or Vice President) who should be approached in the first instance with your concerns. They will come than and report to me at the appropiate time. Apart from this I do surgeries in the community centre which I announce in the message board of “La Casita”. The idea of the surgery is that neighbours can approach me personally without disturbing me at my house. If this Committee is re-elected – and of course there is no guarantee that this will happen today – then here is an opportunity for you to see who your representative is. If the Committee is re-elected, please always contact the representative of your phase in the first instance, or better still, put your complaint in writing and place it in the Community letter box, or alternatively visit me at my surgery in “La Casita”.
II Swimming Pools
a.) Contracting Pool Attendants for both Swimming Pools
For the summer months from mid June until mid September, we contracted two pool attendants for the swimming pools to avoid problems with hooligans. Very soon it was shown that the younger one was not able to control the situation which forced us to replace him. His replacement was Krum and he did an excellent job, so hopefully we can contract him this year too. The opinion about Toni is variable in the urbanisation and it is up to you if you wish him to be reselected for the job this year or not.
b.) Ordering and Installing the new Swimming Pool Fence
In the last AGM the installing of new Swimming Pool fences was approved. I contracted a company which installed the new fence and painted it green. At the same time they also changed the colou r of the entrance doors to the same colour.
c.) Repairing and replacing of the Entrance Doors
Unfortunately we had problems with both entrance doors. The lock from the bottom pool needed to be exchanged and the door which was not closing correctly had to be fixed. We tried to repair the door for the storage room in the bottom pool but finally we had to exchange it because it was too damaged. In the Easter holidays, the fence was already installed, someone took an iron bar to force the gate open. He failed but we had to repair the door again. It shows that they have problems climbing over now but are looking for other ways to get inside without a valid swipe card or at night time.
d.) Pebble dashing the Pool surrounding walls and Pool stores
At the last AGM the pebble dashing of the pool area was approved. Torrevisa promised to do the work for free if the urbanisation paid for the material. We selected a colour for the pebble dash and the work was done in March. I think that you can see that they have done a good job and it has improved the general look of the pools.
e.) Maintenance
I have a continuous communication with the maintenance team and the gardeners for the pool area. That includes complaining if something is not made correctly, or has to be done. For example the lawn has to be cut, the water is not clean enough, the bins have to be emptied and so on.
The irrigation system outside the top pool did not work and I ensured that it got fixed. Also the function of the irrigation system inside both pools had to be repaired and checked on a regular base.
I ensured that all the plants inside the pool area are surrounded with small wooden fences.
Other work that we have ensured has been done includes a pavement around the outside of the top pool. This was done absolutely for free by Torrevisa to whom we are very grateful.
You might wish to know that I had to close the bottom pool because someone had allowed their child to deficate in the pool. This happened on two seperate occasions. As a result of this it will not be permitted for very small children to go into the pool without adequate protective nappies and the pool attendants will have the authority to deny the children access to the pool if they are not suitably attired.
To keep the maintenance going well you need a continuous dialogue really otherwise things would become completely out of control. We need to monitor the performance of the contractor and we shall review the position as the year progresses.
III Urbanisation Problems
Before I start with the Urbanisation Problems, I want to point out again, individual problems with your house or a fight with your neighbour is not a community concern. Only the problems with the public facilities like the green areas, the swimming pools and streets are included in the work of a president and committee.
a.) Sewerage Problems on some Private Streets of Dream Hills
We had several sewerage problems which had to be fixed. I called Aquagest and the emergency workers came out to help by solving this problem. Industrial Cleaning Vehicles had to come to clean the sewerage professionally. Surprisingly in one case they found construction material of the same material a neighbour used for his terrace. One pipe was blocked and I had to call industrial cleaners who came out to clean it. It was shown that the problem occured because there were broken terrace tiles inside. So, for the future be careful with private constructors, you are responsible for these kind of problems. Incidently we charged the owner of the tiles for the cleaning costs of the drain. And please do not put big pieces of rubbish down the toilets.
b.) Ordering and installation of new Sewerage Covers
I ordered and ensured the installion ot new sewerage covers. This was, basically, to avoid sewerage problems in advance, because when they break they could cause another sewerage problem with people throwing things down them.
c.) Waste Bins
We ordered and installed bins for certain private streets of the Urbanisation, particularly the pedestrian area in front of the Swimming Pools and at our mail boxes.
I have had a great deal of Communication with the Cityhall of Orihuela to receive more Community bins in the main streets. This communication is on going. Nevertheless we have already received more bins and also a Green Point (Recycle Bins for paper, glass and plastic) in the main street at Via Park V. The recycling bin for glass was not being emptied so I had to complain several times and finally the cityhall exchanged the bin to another bin of another company who are now emptying it on a regular basis.
d.) Ordering and installing the Dog Signs
I ordered samples of dog signs and at the committee meeting we decided which ones we wanted to take. The signs were ordered and were installed by the members of the committee.
e.) Surgeries in the Community Centre
I had regularly surgeries in the Community Centre to listen to concerns and complaints of neighbours. In the most of the cases the complaint were solved. Nevertheless, some concerns are still unresolved like the problem with Via Park V, in which I helped the neighbours to achieve the best solution which was possible for our side. More about the Via Parks later.
f.) Dumped Cars
The area zona escolar, the school area, is an attractive place for people who want to dump their old cars. I had to ensure several times that dumped cars got towed away. But this is not a solution because other cars seem to always appear. That is why later on we will have a proposal to put planters there at certain distances so that no car can park on the pedestrian area.
g.) Via Park III and resultant problems
First of all I want to refer to the last AGM Report. I mentioned there that I had an extraordinary meeting with the neighbours close to Via Park III concerning the problems with noise and alcohol abuse inside certain bars. We came to the conclusion that a solution would be to install a fence between Via Park III, Residencial Villas del Duque and Dream Hills. I ordered the fence and ensured the installation. Residencial Villas del Duque have begun paying towards their half of the cost of the fence between the two urbanisations and to date they paid their first instalment of 500 €.
Afterwards I went to the cityhall to get permission to close the streets with a gate. This gate was paid for by the concerned neighbours who live close by. The community did not pay for this gate. All this information was published through the minutes of the committee meetings, the message board, in the last AGM review and last but not least on the Dream Hills Website. Two weeks before the gate was supposed to be installed, the gate having already been made, only not painted at this stage, I received a letter from Mrs. Jean Jollife, house number 248, in which she expressed her dislike for the gate and that she will seek legal advice. She also wrote:
“I timed myself walking at a normal pace to the corner of Via Park III which from my house took 1 minute and 56 seconds. I then walked round the block which you expect me to do and this took 3 minutes 23 seconds.”
This is a difference of 1 minute and 27 seconds. I received this letter in November and I have it here and I am willing to show anyone who wants to see it. After receiving this letter I met her briefly at the mail box area and this turned into a heavy discussion which ended with her threatening me with her lawyer, as she did in her letter.
At the beginning of January I received a letter from her lawyer addressing me as the president of the Urbanisation Dream Hills, saying that I have five days from the day of receiving this letter to take the gate down. I gave this letter to our lawyer and he told me that installing a gate in an urbanisation has to be proposed at the AGM and the majority have to vote in favour of it. Unfortunately we did not do this with this gate. We thought that as the majority of people affected by the noise, alcohol abuse and rubbish problem had voted for it that this would be enough. Our lawyer has recommended that we vote for this in retrospect.
Some weeks later I received the next letter from her lawyer now addressing me directly but not as the President of the Urbanisation. Allegedly Mrs. Jolliffe gave the lawyer the impression that I live in the area of the estate near to the gate and that after I was elected President I got the idea with some other friends who are living in this area too to close the street with a gate. Also it seems to me that she did not tell him that she still can approach her house through three other streets. So I wrote back informing him that I have no personal interest whatssoever in this gate and I included a map of the urbanisation in which he could see that she has easy access to her house.
At the end of February, I received a further letter, this time addressing me as the President again, telling me I have to pull down the gate or they will sue me personally for this alleged illegal act.
All these letter are here for anyone who wants to see them. I want to finish this by telling you that it was approximately 30 Euros for each neighbour to pay and the lawyers costs must have been much more because the postal charges were already over 40 Euros in sending me these letters.
If the neighbours of Dream Hills want that this gate stays like it is you have to vote in favour. If not we are obliged to pull this gate down. It is now up to you and I am unable to get further involed in this or any similar situations. Bearing in mind that I have a law suit pending.
h.) Via Park V and resultant problems
The neighbours arranged a demonstration against Via Park V and a film crew filmed this event and showed it on BBC1 in November of last year. Costa Blanca News and Round Town News were reporting this in their newspapers.
17th of July: A construction lorry blocked the private street next to the building site and we blocked his lorry because we already told him not to park there. This had no effect at all. The Local Police came and fined all of us. Although from a legal point of view this is not possible because it is a private street. We did not pay the fines and our Administrator wrote to the cityhall saying that we we are not going to pay and we have heard no more.
20th of July: The public street was blocked because the constructor did the foundations. I called the police and they came but the coordinator of the builders showed his permission which he obtained from the local police. I went with a spanish neighbour to the Cityhall at Orihuela Costa and spoke with mayors assistant, Rosa García, who went with us to the Local Police. She let us wait a long time outside and after a while she came out to take her leave and told us an officer will attend to us shortly. After half an hour, an officer came out (Jose Andugar) and told us it was his fault, he thought the builder had a licence to build and had given him permission to close the street. As soon as they got the order from Orihuela they would open the street again. We went to our Administrator and it took Ana Rosa less than half an hour to get the information from the Cityhall of Orihuela that indeed the constructor had no licence and that this was an infringement of the law. At that point I was convinced that in the afternoon the street would be open again. But to my surprise the street was closed the whole day until the workers finished the first foundation. In the afternoon I called the Local Police but they did not want to communicate, so I went down personally again and they told me that they would need the order from Rosa García, but she does not work in the afternoon so I should come back in the morning. The boss of the Local Police was not there either or did not want to attend to me.
21th of July: I returned to the Cityhall in the morning to speak to Rosa García. She assured me that the mistake was made by the Local Police and that they do not need an order from her, but she was not 100% sure, so she wanted to look into the legal situation. Afterwards, I went immediately to the Cityhall in Orihuela and visited a number of departments. The responsable people assured me that the constructor had no licence and they gave me the reference numbers of the infringement. With this information, I went back to the Local Police at the Orihuela Costa, and spoke with Jose Andugar telling him the facts and letting him make a copy of the infringement numbers. I understood that blocking a street would not happen again.
23th of July: The Local Police gave permission a second time to block the street to allow the constructor to make another foundation for Via Park V. I went to the police and either Rosa García, the Boss of the Local Police and Antonio Aniorte (Consejal del Ayuntamiento de la Orihuela Costa) were available to clear up this problem.
26th of July: I had a meeting with David Pamies, a reporter from the local newspaper “Información”, informing him of the facts of the construction site in Dream Hills, which had no building licence.
27th of July: An article about Via Park V appeared in “Información”.
30th of July: Ana Rosa received a call from a very irritated Rosa García showing us that the article had had an effect in the Cityhall.
Second of August: The building work stopped temporarily.
They stopped working for the whole of August and started again in September. The commercial site is almost completed now and the constructor has now received the licence.
Meanwhile, the neighbours installed a chain to avoid construction lorries entering their street. This also happened without AGM approval and must be voted for today. It is up to you if you agree with this chain or not. If you are against it, it must be taken down. Before the chain was installed all the residents of this street promised me that they would use their own street, rather than the neighbours streets, to avoid conflict.
i.) Street Lighting
I ensured the installation of detectors for the street lights. Only when it is dark should the light start. In the beginning we had problems, because the electrician didn´t install these detectors in a high position. So I had to force him to come back to install these detectors on the top of the cable and telephone buildings. Now it is working perfectly, the light goes on at nighttime and goes off at daylight. Nevertheless we still have light problems sometimes when fuses blow. Roger and Chris assist in fixing the fuses because they know where the fuse boxes are. In the future: If there is a light problem don´t forget to contact the committee representative of your phase. But please ensure that you do this at a reasonable hour, preferrably when the lights are due on - early in the evening. I maintain continuous communication with the electrician because light bulbs don´t work or other technical problems occur.
You may wish to note that until December of last year, the Urbanisation was responsible for the public street lighting, that is in addition to the lights in the private streets, which we are still responsible for. From December last year, the public lighting - those of the main roads, was taken over by the Ayuntamiento with a resultant saving of some 2000 € in our electricity bill in the forthcoming financial year.
j.) Telephones
The community arranged a contract with a number of companies that have installed telephone kiosks throughout the urbanisation. This year we have received a cashback of 3.026,41 € as a result of the use of these kiosks by people in Dream Hills.
We have been in negociation with a new telephone company called Telycom which would like to install telephones in private houses. We have given approval for this company to operate in Dream Hills and we should receive a commision of 500 € a year for facilitating the contract.
k.) Continous Communication and Difficulties
Last but not least I have had meetings with the administrator on a regular basis to discuss many of the problems that I have already mentioned. In addition I have to sign the paycheques for the maintenance company or other workers who have worked in Dreamhills. This has to be done each month. As you will appreciate it is necessary for me to have continous communication not only with the Administrator, but the Cityhall, the Maintenance Company, Iberdrola, Aquagest, Muñoz & Espinosa, Pastor Medina, Torrevisa, the Committee and so on.
We have received a lot of feedback from owners, particularly those who are not fully resident in Spain, that they feel insufficently informed. You will appreciate that it would be an almost impossible task to notify everyone who is resident abroad for most of the time in advance of each meeting, or decision and solicit their views on every aspect of the running of the community. We do try and do this as much as we are able without incuring huge costs to the community and the AGM and its prior notification is an example of this. However, if you have any suggestions about improvements we can make without additional cost, we would be happy to hear them. On the other hand if the situation was reversed and you had a holiday home in the UK, for example I wonder how much you would be informed about what was going on on your estate! There is, however a website which gives information about our Urbanisation at www.dreamhills.co.uk in which you can find the minutes of the committee meetings and other news about our estate. We believe that we have gone a long way in alleviating the problems of communication by the extense use of the website over the last year.
IV The Community Centre for the Urbanisation Dreamhills:
The Casita was opened officially in December. Ana Rosa and her team kindly provided the champagne and she attended the gathering for the inauguration. Some 60 or 70 people attended and the evening was a great success. There is a record of the opening with photographs hanging on the Casita wall, again kindly provided by Ana Rosa. The pictures are also on the Dream Hills Website.
The community Centre is now running with certain activities like Spanish lessons, book swapping, Quiz Nights and Darts evenings. The main organizer is Linda Sims who will now give you a brief report about the Casita.
--- Lindas Report ---
Thank you Linda and thank you ladies and gentlemen for you attention. That concludes my report on my and the Committees activities over the last 12 months. And now I hand you back to Ana Rosa to continue the meeting.
Stefan Pokroppa