Marbella Mayor Downplays €4 Million Payment to Former Cemetery Concessionaire
The Mayor of Marbella, Ángeles Muñoz, has downplayed the need to pay nearly 4 million euros to the former cemetery concessionaire as compensation for withdrawing their service provision in 2013. She stated that the payment will be made from the contingency fund and that there are also other positive court rulings for the City Council.
Mayor’s Response to Payment Obligation
The mayor was rather sparing with her words when asked this morning about the payment that must be made to the company that managed the municipality’s cemeteries until 2013. She pointed out that they have “several tools for unforeseen issues such as court rulings”. She added that “there is a budget item such as the contingency fund and an automatic deferred payment is made over ten years”.
Payment Plan for the €3,857,820 Debt
This is the system that, she explained, will be used to pay the €3,857,820 to Necrópolis S.L., the company from which the cemetery management concession was withdrawn. After a lengthy legal process, there is now a final judgment and the City Council will have to pay this significant sum following the political decision made by the mayor herself.
Mayor’s Stance on the Issue
Muñoz has downplayed the issue, without taking any responsibility, and also stated that there are also “positive rulings” for the municipal institution. She hinted that they will soon announce one regarding the Fergocon case, which she said, “will allow us to recover our heritage”. In this legal case, the former mayor Julián Muñoz and the lawyer José María del Nido, among others, were definitively convicted in 2017.
2013 Cemetery Concession Withdrawal
In 2013, the Mayor of Marbella decided to reclaim the cemetery concession, which had been in the hands of Necrópolis S.L. since 1995, and the company took the matter to court. The following year, Muñoz awarded it to a group of companies made up of two funeral homes, Blay and Vadis, plus two local companies, Fernando Moreno and Huete Architects.
Controversies with the New Concessionaire
The new concessionaire soon generated controversies such as the renovation works at the San Pedro Alcántara cemetery, where a crematorium was also planned next to several educational centers.
