Yacht club associations calls on Valencia to resolve concession extension issues

Monday 15th March 2021 | Xàbia AL DÍA (translated by MIKE SMITH)

The Comunidad Valenciana Yacht Club Association (ACNCV) has regretted a statement by the regional government over “delays to the multi-million euro investments” that would be made by the clubs in the Valencian marinas, that the association says, are “due to [the GVA] inability to solve the issue of expired concessions“.

The association, which brings together 24 yacht clubs in the region of which more than half have an expired concession, has spoken out after learning that the Department of Territorial Policy, Public Works and Mobility of the Generalitat Valenciana plans to invest 7.4 million euros in emergency work to repair the damage caused by storms in the ports of the Comunidad Valenciana.

Meanwhile, the association pointed out that it brings together the yacht clubs and “many sports entities have not been able to remodel the damage to their facilities, valued at more than three million euros, due to the uncertainty caused by the paralysis of the files“, while adding that, in addition, the GVA “ignores the economic impact that would entail adding the investments that yacht clubs would make if the procedures for the extension and renewal of concessions were resolved, which would exceed 10 million euros and that they could have been carried out for more than two years”.

It is a situation in which the Club Naútico de Jávea finds itself, which is still waiting for written confirmation in official documents of the announcement that the Minister of Territorial Policy made more last summer during a visit to the club. (In July 2020, the Regional Minister for Territorial Policy, Arcadi España announced the granting of an ten-year extension of the concession to the Club Náutico de Jávea, which was to be signed off in September 2020.)

In a statement, the ACNCV called the inability of the Dirección General de Puertos of the Generalitat Valenciana to resolve the issue of expired concessions “violates the public interest, since it not only keeps yacht clubs in a state of permanent legal insecurity and stops their investments, but, in addition, it slows down the adaptation of the facilities to the sports and tourist demand, as well as the adaptation to continue advancing in environmental sustainability”. These investments, ts adds, would represent an evident multiplier effect of the investment effort of the Generalitat Valenciana.

THE ACNCV urged the Minister of Territorial Policy, Public Works and Mobility, Arcadi España, to “get it done immediately and put an end once and for all the paralysis in which the General Directorate of Ports has been installed for some time. Too many years“.

It should be remembered that yacht clubs are non-profit entities that invest all their income in the maintenance of the facilities and in the promotion of sport, in addition to providing an evident added value to tourism and, therefore, to the economy in the Comunidad Valenciana.

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