ARCHIVED - Alhama de Murcia pleno meet Thursday to debate Paramount theme park plans

In this special pleno the council hope to agree all the necessary planning modifications required

On Thursday Alhama de Murcia council will be holding an extraordinary session of the municipal pleno, with 5 points up for discussion, three of them relating to the Paramount park project in the Alhama municipality.

The three points relating to the proposed theme park construction are the definitive approval of the modifications made to the Plan Especial de Infraestructuras Comunes de los Desarrollos Turístico-Residenciales del Sur del Municipio de Alhama de Murcia( the special infrastructural plan of residential tourism development in the south of the Alhama de Murcia municipality), the approval of the urban agreement with Casón de Carrascoy, S.L., in reference to the granting of lands for environmental improvements and the obtention of agreement for their use within the Plan Especial Parque Paramount and the definitive approval of the modified version of the Plan Especial para la implantación del Parque Temático Paramount, ( the special plan for the construction of the Paramount theme Park.

If the three points are approved by the pleno, then the plans will be passed over to Proyectos Emblemáticos Murcianos, Premursa, the owners of the license to construct this theme park, granted by Paramount Licensing, who could then formally request permission to initiate the park.
This can only take place now, with approval of the environmental impact study requested by the consejería de Presidencia concluded.
In theory, the works could start once these formal processes have been finished completely, possibly in July, although the last comment made by the regional minister for tourism Pedro Cruz, was that the bulldozers were ready and waiting to start the earthmoving as soon as the final paperwork hurdle was vaulted.

Although the incumbent PP administration have the majority vote, the session may be far from smooth, as the PSOE opposition have indicated for the first time that there may be some dissention in their ranks with reference to the approval of the modifications.
The IU have always been against the plan for the theme park, so their stance will be negative, with an against vote, regardless of the debate which takes place.

The PSOE ( socialists ) have always been supportive of the plans for Paramount, indeed, the project was initiated during the legislature of the previous administration which was run by socialist mayor, José Espadas.

However, the Secretary General of the Alhama PSOE, Diego Conesa, indicated that his members may abstain or vote against the plans, after a preliminary session to study the contents of the environmental impact documentation concluded.
Sr Conesa said that the regional government had “washed its hands of the decision” and “”transferred all the responsibility to the Alhama town hall, “ and complained that his party only had two days in which to study the documentation.

The paperwork processes have been somewhat complex, due primarily to problems acquiring the selected plots of land, due to the bankruptcy status of the vendor and the complicated embargoes in place against the desired plot, and secondly the issue which blew up relating to the reclassification of land . A non-related court case in Águilas resulted in the Spanish courts overturning a law passed by the regional government last century, which ruled that all regional park land which had been reclassified by the regional government for alternative urban use must be returned to the status it held before 1992. This effectively meant that parts of the land allocated for the Paramount project must be returned to green belt status, and although the percentage of land concerned was small, and according to Sr Cruz, should not impact on the Paramount project, has meant that paperwork must be re-submitted with modifications to take these two different factors into consideration.

And these are the final changes, with completed environmental impact report, which now face the Alhama de Murcia pleno meeting on Thursday.
No announcement has yet been made regarding the financing of the project, although the last official statements were negative, but universally optimistic that investors were interested in financing the project, in spite of the fact that final deals had not been formalised.

The project initiated in February 2010 and since then local businesses have remained hopeful that all of the bureaucratic hurdles can be overcome, financing obtained and construction begin, bringing business opportunities across the Region of Murcia.

Full history of the Paramount Park project can be found in the Alhama de Murcia section, accessed via the map box at the bottom of every page.
 

Image: The Mayor of Alhama de Murcia signing an agreement with Jesus Samper, President of Premursa