He has admitted to process the appeal presented by national deputies of the PSOE, Compromís, Podemos and add against the modification of the one promoted by the Consell of Carlos Mazón and that was validated in Les Corts in February with the votes of the PP and Vox.
The Official Gazette of the State publishes this Thursday the decision of the Plenary of the Constitutional Court adopted on May 27 to admit this appeal of unconstitutionality promoted by more than 50 deputies of the Congress against the decree law of the Consell that and the decree of the Territorial Action Plan of the Huerta, of the same year. The signatories of the resources requested precautionary measures to avoid that works or requalifications of soil that could cause irreversible damage are executed.
The recurring consider that this modification goes against the constitutional rights of environmental protection, will allow urbanizing 3,800 hectares of orchard, to silence the voice of agricultural unions and associations by eliminating the Consell of L’Horta and consider that the October Dana has been used “as an excuse to unprotect the garden” and favor “speculation”.
The text of the resource considers that the principle of legal certainty is violated when regulatory modifications are introduced with structural effects “without clarity, neither predictability or parliamentary debate, since not only the legal system applicable to the garden of Valencia is substantially altered in a substantive way, but does so opaque, suddenly, incoherent and without guarantees, generating an uncertain and arbitrary legal environment”.
The Valencian Government justified these changes due to the need to address “deficiencies and obstacles” from its approval in 2018, which considers that they were aggravated by the floods of October 29, and to simplify structures, save costs and avoid duplication.
The Botànic government approved in 2018 a law that has been diminishing for the progress of urban plans and infrastructure. The law, signed by the PSOE, Compromís and Unides Podem, created a Governing Board and set a series of measures to encourage the recovery of abandoned or degraded farmland, an objective that the PP considers failing.
Now, after the devastating Dana on October 29 in the background – although the PP announced the changes much earlier – the Consell has opened the possibility of residential constructions in a third of the protected soils, specifically those of grade 3, and has suppressed the Consell de l’Horta, its governing body “by inoperative”. The organization Per l’Horta estimates that it is unprotected in fact 3,800 hectares, a few located in L’Horta Sud, epicenter of the Dana, but, above all, in L’Horta Nord, the highest quality orchard that did not reach the flood.
Laura Chulià, an attached spokesman of the PP in the Valencian Courts, argued when the reform that the 2018 Botànic government had been a “resounding failure” because it has not met the marked objectives and did not have the opinion of the municipalities, especially those that barely have land bag for their urban growth. He also denies that the garden is sought to unprotect: “Those of Grade 1 and 2 will continue to be protected and only those of Grade 3 may, in some cases, be used to build homes,” he said.
It is “living heritage”, defends Compromís
The deputy spokeswoman for Compromís in the Corts, Paula Espinosa, has shown the satisfaction of the coalition for the acceptance of the appeal for unconstitutionality against the modification of the law of L’Horta, which dismantles her protection.
For Espinosa “this resource has been a necessary step to defend the legality, democracy and territory. A reform of this magnitude cannot be approved with the excuse of an emergency, even more when it undermines all the technical and scientific recommendations to deal with catastrophes such as the Dana. L’Es Botanic knew how to protect in attention to the general interest. “
Compromís is convinced that the Constitutional Court, after acceptance for processing, will end up sentencing that the Decree of the Consell was approved unconstitutionally, using the exceptional figure of the decree law without concurring the conditions of extraordinary and urgent need ”required by article 86 of the Spanish Constitution, as indicated in its report the Generalitat’s own advice.
“It must be remembered that the day of the Dana, the agricultural areas acted as natural flooding areas, absorbing part of the water and preventing it from reaching more violence to urban centers. They are the fields, and not the concrete, which reduce the impact of torrential rains, filter the water into the aquifers and stop the Barrancada effect,” said Espinosa.
The Valencian garden, which has reduced its extension in recent decades in the face of construction progress, is “the best preserved European example of the Mediterranean garden.” In fact, Oxford and London School have been interested in this ecosystem for their uniqueness.
The regression of the garden in the years of urban development has been important. As the Valencian geographer Víctor Soriano recalled a year ago, in the last half century this soil of high agricultural value – a must of offering up to four crops in just one year – has retreated in 64%.
