ARCHIVED - British Ambassador to Spain, Hugh Elliott, visits Mazarron

The Ambassador met with the Mayor to discuss a number of topics related to the community of British nationals in the area

The Town Hall reports that topics of conversation included the situation of the British nationals residing in the municipality, as well as the current issues relating to the Camposol Urbanisation

The British Ambassador to Spain, Hugh Elliot, stopped off in Mazarrón on Thursday May 3 as part of a series of institutional visits around Spain.

Having met with the regional president in Murcia City, the ambassador also met with the mayor of the Mazarrón municipality, Gaspar Miras, along with the Councillor for Camposol and International Relations, Silvana Buxton, and the Councillor for Citizen Participation and Outlying Districts, José María Moreno.

Camposol was obviously a topic of conversation and according to the Town Hall, the Mayor expressed the, “willingness of the Town Hall to work with these residents” and emphasised that for the first time this council has created a concejalía for the urbanisation, stressing the “great work being carried out by councillor Buxton.”

This is the first time sufficient votes have been cast in the municipality to enable the election of a non-native councillor.

The problems faced by the urbanisation were discussed, the town hall keen to point out the work being undertaken by themselves to resolve some of the long-standing issues, including the lack of lighting and solution of the services problems.

Both parties agreed to maintain fluid communication in order to work together to find solutions to the problems experienced by British nationals resident in the municipality, particularly in the post-Brexit era, which has, in its turn, created a variety of new challenges for those relocating to Spain or already resident.

The meeting concluded with an institutional gift presentation, with the council presenting the ambassador with a mini version of the sculpture of the Phoenician boat located on the entrance roundabout to the port and the ambassador signing the municipal book of honour.

Obviously residents of the municipality are keen to see some of their long-standing issues resolved and although institutional visits do help to remind councils and regional governments of the large sums of money spent by their British visitors and residents, convincing these same bodies that fine words need to be translated into actions is another thing altogether, as residents of the urbanisation are all too well aware after many visits from a succession of ambassadors and consuls over the years.

The same could also be said for other areas of the region where residents also have significant problems; unfortunately, the needs of non-Spanish speaking British nationals in this region are routinely overlooked as can be clearly seen in the efforts made by the regional government to ensure that foreign nationals have been given information in English throughout the covid crisis and subsequent vaccination roll-out; in 2021 the budget for supporting the production of information in English through any mechanism is precisely zero euros.

Unfortunately, the promised budgets for Camposol have not materialised into directly spendable money and the councillor must fight through a quagmire of bureaucracy in order to obtain the smallest sum of money for any project, and work with other departments to ensure Camposol is included in spending plans for general municipal services or projects.

The councillor has achieved more since her election than during any other previous administration, through sheer tenacity and a terrier-like determination to find a route to the cash, but institutional interest can only be achieved if the expat population exercise their right to vote and flex their voting muscles to support their own.

Fortunately, the British government is passing laws which will permit those who have been outside of the UK for more than 15 years to have some say in the UK elections, and also permit British nationals resident in Spain for more than three years, to vote in local municipal elections here in Spain, so providing the population of British nationals actually exercise their right to vote, progress could conceivably be made through a political route and councils encourgaed to take note of the needs of their voting foreign national residents.