The promoters have a license from the Department of Urbanism to build the temple together with a group of semi-detached houses
Neighbors of the hamlet of Ramonete oppose the construction of a mosque on a plot attached to an urbanization with thirty semi-detached houses in the urban core of the town. The project has the mandatory municipal license, but one of the neighbors, Ascensión López, told LA VERDAD that “this is not the site for a mosque, there is land in Ramonete to build it in a more isolated place.”
According to López, the hall of worship will cause noise and annoyance to the neighbors of the duplexes due to the concentration of faithful and vehicles in a residential area that lacks sufficient parking spaces. He assured that those affected “are willing to do whatever it takes, we will collect signatures and go to the City Council to protest” to prevent their construction next to the chalets, although they do not oppose, he reiterated, to be raised at another point in the council.
The neighbors were accompanied in their public complaint next to the lot by several councilors of the PP. The spokesman for this municipal group, Fulgencio Gil, said he shared the “indignation” of the inhabitants of the urbanization, who had not been informed of the project to build the Islamic temple by the City Council. He asked the mayor, Diego José Mateos, to revoke the permit to build the mosque and accused him of “stumbling over the same stone again, repeating the same mistake as in the Apolonia neighborhood”, where the neighborhood refusal to open a Hall of worship has caused cacerolas and protest rallies in the last year.
The PP and the government team cross reproaches on account of the permission for the works
Gil said that the Apolonia case “led to a real social conflict due to the terrible management carried out by the Government team,” which he now points out for failing to comply with the agreement adopted in June by the municipal plenary session that obliges him to “suspend the concession of licenses for the establishment of places of worship where there are dwellings ”.
The councilor for Urbanism, José Luis Ruiz, said that “the promoters have a license to build the mosque because they meet all the technical requirements to do so, the law protects them.” Regarding the accusations of the PP on the suspension of licenses approved in plenary session unanimously, he said that it refers to “licenses or qualifying titles in the basement of existing buildings, in no case to buildings for exclusive use”, such as the one requested to build the mosque in the deputation. For Ruiz, Gil “lies blatantly, tries to confuse the neighbors to get political gain in this matter” and his complaint “is unfounded.” The Ramonete district, one of the largest populations of African origin in Lorca, has had a mosque located outside the inhabited area for several years.
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