Mayor built a house on non-urban land by claiming it was just a garden shed

Residents have complained that the mayor has built a house on non-urban land by claiming it was just a garden shed. According to the village’s inhabitants, Juan Jose Puchol (PSPV) had a house built of some 40 square metres, which he said was just a storeroom for tools and a DIY room, but then later installed a small bathroom and kitchen. They say the windows of the ground floor are blanked out so passers-by cannot see that it is lived in, and the upper floor windows ‘have sea views’. Properties built on land classified as ‘rural’ or ‘rustic’ must not be residential, meaning that planning permission is not available. In this respect, residents claim the mayor’s house was built without the correct legal licence. But the mayor says the council’s architects gave the green light to the construction. Residents have also complained that the mayor has ‘illegally’ built a property in the mountains nearby. They say he did so using an existing ruin and a renovation licence, but that in practice, the building is completely new and none of the existing walls has been used in the construction. According to the mayor, ‘it was just the restoration of an old farmhouse’.