November 2011

Early in the month, we are not holding our breath, but we hear from Dušan that the DUP should be on its final journey from the Ministry to the Municipality by the middle of the month. The next and final stage will be for the Škupstina to approve it. Since mid October, James phones the Mayor’s office regularly to get a meeting set up, but without success. He gets the feeling that she doesn’t want to see him, possibly remembering her comments in April. Finally on 7th Nov he is told that the DUP has completed all its stages in the municipality, has even been subject to an inspection from the Ministry to check that all the procedures had been done correctly, and is back in the Ministry for the final ‘rubber-stamp’. During the week, Dušan establishes it should be back down the following week. Having been through so many false starts we are hesitant to break out the bubbly just yet!

In the last week of the month, we meet the municipal planners with Dušan and are told that the DUP has indeed come down from the Ministry with all its approvals. We even see the stamped copy signed by the Minister! It is scheduled to be discussed at the next Škupstina meeting, so that it will take effect from the start of 2012. Interestingly, there is a new team in the planning office. Earlier in the year the previous head of the office was alleged to have taken bribes, which she denied, and she moved to Podgorica during the summer. The specific project over which she was challenged is in Risan and had been given building permission some years earlier. Two apartment blocks next to the main road were allowed to have three stories (thus totally blocking the light and view of the old stone house immediately behind them).