Moreno after giving a statement in Lorca, in 2020. /
The magistrate sees signs of a possible crime against the environment and orders to continue with the proceedings
The magistrate of the Court of Instruction number 4 of Lorca has issued an order to continue with the proceedings against the mayor of Águilas, María del Carmen Moreno, and two businessmen, who are heading to trial for an alleged crime of noise pollution from the noise of an ice cream shop. In the car, the Prosecutor’s Office and the accusations in person were notified so that, within ten days, they could request the opening of the oral trial or the dismissal of the case. Exceptionally, they could claim the practice of new complementary proceedings.
A neighbor reported in 2015 the noise generated by the construction of an ice cream parlor, which, apparently, lacked the mandatory administrative building permits, as well as the environmental impact studies and the modification of the project to open the premises. The owners of the establishment carried out works in the patio next to the back of the ice cream parlor, locating the electrical installations and the motors used in their work activity under the windows of the complainant’s home.
According to the car, the acoustic emissions of the engines and air conditioners exceeded during daytime hours, in the period between 2015 and 2018, the thresholds legally permitted by municipal regulations. A noise that, according to the sanctioning administrative file and the extensive testimonial practiced, would be superior and would cause greater disturbances to the complainant and her family during the night, which would have derived in great risks for her mental and physical health.
Moreno assures that in June the complainant refused a measurement to verify compliance with the municipal ordinance
“Relinquishment of functions”
At the end of the investigation phase, the judge has seen signs of an alleged crime and, as stated in the order, the City Council was aware of the situation from the beginning, and the councilor, also investigated, “with abandonment of the functions that legal and administratively competed with him, he ignored the repeated complaints and requests for inspection by the complainant, without there being a file of urban discipline or environmental discipline to date, and without, precautionary, having ordered the stoppage of the reported activity.
Noise pollution has caused the complainant and her family stress, anxiety, insomnia and various aggravated hearing injuries since 2015.
Asked by THE TRUTH, Mayor Moreno assured that she had not received said notification or had any news about it since June. «Before the opening of the ice cream parlor, the owners and the City Council requested a noise measurement service from a company to verify that the decibels comply with the municipal ordinance. The complainant and owner of the house refused to carry out this verification, “said Mari Carmen Moreno, who added that all the documentation was provided at the time to the Lorca Court of Instruction.
The ex-regidor of Pliego was disqualified
A similar case of noise pollution was carried out by the former mayor of Pliego, Isabel Toledo. On July 25, 2014, she resigned as councilor and deputy for the PP in the Regional Assembly after the Superior Court of Justice (TSJ) sentenced her to nine years of disqualification from employment or public office for continued prevarication by not remedying the noise pollution caused by a town pub. The Supreme Court confirmed the terms of the sentence in May 2015, although it reduced the sentence by two years.
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