Graham Keeley, The Times

Parliament offers fresh hope to residents in Spain forced to pay for unwanted local infrastructure

LEONARD DEACON wakes up in the middle of the night with only one thought on his mind: the so-called “land-grab law”, which threatens to rob him of his dream retirement home in Spain.

Under the law, Mr Deacon and his wife, Tessa, face paying a €55,000 (£37,000) bill for “infrastructure” that they do not need and losing one third of their land at their villa in Moraira, near Alicante, southeast Spain. “It is the only thing we can think of. It has been a terrible worry,” Mr Deacon, an engineering company director, said.

Yesterday the Deacons and about 30,000 other Britons facing similar threats under the law were given fresh hope of a reprieve when the European Parliament voted by 550 votes to 45 to support a highly critical report that attacked the “surreal” legislation.

The law allows land to be confiscated in order to “urbanise” rural areas by adding infrastructure such as roads, lighting and sewerage.

Yesterday’s vote follows a damning report by the European Parliament’s petitions committee. It found: “The application of the law has brought a grave violation of the basic rights of many thousands of European Union citizens.”

It followed complaints from more than 15,000 property owners about the Urban Planning Regulatory Law (LRAU), which came into force in the Valencia region in 1994.

The vote in the European Parliament does not oblige Spain to repeal the law, but it will strengthen legal challenges against Spain by the European Commission. The Commission has started legal proceedings against the Spanish Government for contravening EU citizens’ property rights by not properly compensating them if property is seized.

For Mr Deacon, 76, the news offered some hope of an end to his nightmare. The Deacons moved from Surrey to Spain in 1993 and poured their savings into buying their villa, only to find themselves embroiled in a fight to keep their home. Property developers used the law to try to force them to pay for a link to a sewage works, even though they have a septic tank. But the Deacons have fought through the courts against the property developers.

“We hope this will stop them going ahead with this and leave us in peace,” he said.

Joyce Pearson, 71, and her husband Ed, who retired from Kent to nearby Javea, near Alicante, face a similar dilemma.

They are fighting demands for up to €16,000 (£11,000) to pay for drainage, electricity and a link to a sewage plant.

Mrs Pearson, 71, said: “We are hoping that this vote will mean we will not have to pay, as we only have our pensions.”

Russell Thomson, the British Consul in Alicante, said that up to 30,000 Britons were worried they would fall victim to the law. “The main thing this will do is put people off buying here, which may well be the thing that really forces them to change the law,” he said.

But even if Madrid faces EU legal sanctions, forcing the regional government in Valencia to repeal the law may not be so easy. Regional governments in Spain have great independence. Run by the opposition conservative Popular Party, Valencia is expected to resist attempts by the central Government run by the ruling Socialist party to lay down the law.

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