Portal de Lorca
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The councilor of this training, Gloria Martin, explained that after expiration of the titles justifying the holdings no new administrative concessions were made, so for five years, extractive activity is illegal and free for those companies that have not paid money. some for extracting raw material from municipal land
The councilor of Izquierda Unida-Verdes, Gloria Martin, has denounced that since 2012 the City of Lorca is not charging the mandatory fee to companies that exploit quarries in the public forests of the municipality.
Martín has demanded that the amount that the municipal coffers have stopped receiving for the use of the quarries located in the Santa Cruz mountain, the Benito felling, the Almirez strait and the Las Loberas ravine, all in the deputation of Zarcilla de Ramos.
The annual profit canon is fixed at an average of 21.18 euros per cubic meter extracted.
15% of the income for this concept has to be reinvested in the maintenance of public forests and the remaining 85% must be deposited in the municipal coffers.
The problem arose after expiration of the justifying titles of the farms and no new administrative concessions were processed by the Autonomous Community, so, for five years, the extractive activity is illegal and free for those companies that have not paid any money for extract raw material from municipal land.
Therefore, Martin has requested the precautionary cessation of the activity until its regularization, while it has once again demanded the urgent convocation of the municipal control commission on this issue, which has met only once - on the occasion of its constitution. without having ever made public the quarry census, data on quantities extracted, its impact on the environment or the wealth it generates for the municipality.
To all this we must add the uncontrolled deterioration of public forests.
For this reason, Martín requested the realization of an investigation on the non-fulfillment referred to environmental restoration of the exploited areas so that the opportune responsibilities to the companies are demanded.
"It is depleting the landscape and natural heritage of the municipality without the City Council receiving any compensation and without even undertake reforestation and environmental recovery plans to which they are bound by law," he said.
In this sense, the councilor of IU-Greens also advocated that new agreements be signed with the majority of foreign operating companies that incorporate clauses of social responsibility by which they contribute to economic and social development in the areas where they carry out their activity.
Martín cited as an example the City Council of Estepona (Málaga), which has signed an agreement whereby 1.5 percent of the profits from the annual gross production of a quarry located on municipal land is allocated to public infrastructure.
The same happens in the municipalities of Porreres and Montuïri (Balearic Islands) and in other parts of the country.
Lorca, however, does not even have a municipal scale that certifies the amount of extracted mineral, which IU-Verdes also claims to be able to calculate "without any shadow of a doubt" the compensation that the City Council must receive.
Environmental authorizations questioned
Gloria Martín also showed the rejection of her political training to the expansion of a quarry of limestone materials in the Monte Consortium Venta Osete, in the deputation of La Paca.
In the own environmental impact statement issued by the General Directorate of the Environment it is recognized that the responsible Murcian company presents an insufficient environmental restoration plan and has not even complied with the integral restoration of the quarry phase in which they have already completed the extractive works (it only intends to repopulate 8 of 28 hectares).
An extension that also affects the protection perimeter of the deposit known as Cerro de la Paca, where materials of the Lower and Middle Jurassic are represented with formations of limestones and margocalizas that have provided an abundant fossil content.
In the geographical area in which the extractive action is planned, habitats of community interest and species included in the Regional Catalog of Protected Wild Flora have been identified, as well as being a potential area for the distribution of the black turtle.
As if that were not enough, it also recognizes a possible "irregular situation" of this mountain because although there is a resolution of the termination of the consortium, "there is no proof of payment of the price of such termination so it may not be effective."
Although the General Directorate of the Environment makes the final approval of the project dependent on the incorporation of preventive, corrective and compensatory measures, for Martín, it is a fact that the Autonomous Administration is "expert" in turning a "blind eye" to the flagrants breaches of the ruling in statements of environmental impact throughout the geography of the region and also in Lorca.
This is so, according to Martin, because the Popular Party and the preservation of the natural environment are two "incompatible" concepts.
"For them, any square meter of land is likely to be squeezed to exhaustion because economic interests are at the top of the list, to the detriment of environmental rights," he concluded.
Source: IU-verdes Lorca
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