Letter from Downing Street dated 24/08/09, received 04/09/09:
'The Prime Minister has asked me to thank you for your recent letter and the enclosure. As you can imagine, he receives thousands of letters each week. He would like to reply personally to them all, but his many duties mean that he must ask his Government Departments to do this on his behalf. I can assure you that your concerns have been carefully noted.
As the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is responsible for the matters that you raise, and has the latest information on this subject, Mr Brown has asked me to send your further letter to them'. END
DOWNING STREET:
The following Open Letter was sent to Gordon Brown on 19 August 2009:
The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown MP
The Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London SW1A 2AA
19 August 2009
OPEN LETTER - Recorded Delivery
Dear Prime Minister,
The Spanish Property Scandal Petition, handed in at Downing Street on 12 March 2009 has to date received one short response from your office; that the petition is 'noted' and has been passed to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for any comments they 'may' have. There has been no response from the FCO since submitting our petition.
With respect Sir, the petition is addressed to you, not the FCO. We have asked for your direct attention, as our Prime Minister, to the issues detailed and to raise them with the Spanish Prime Minister. Can you please tell us what action has been taken. It is difficult to understand how you could have read the petition or even glanced at its accompanying weighty dossier, and allow a response from your office which comes across to petitioners as being, to say the very least, dismissive. You may be interested to read just a few of their comments:
'The failure of the British Government to address any of the comments from nearly 1,000 petitioners is wholly unacceptable.'
'Thousands of taxpaying EU citizens (mainly elderly British) have been unlawfully robbed of their life savings totalling billions of pounds/euros. The legal system in Spain is ridiculously slow and enforcement of judgements is inadequate, thus enabling the fraudsters to laugh at the law with impunity. It is unacceptable that the British Government is doing nothing to force this unjust and intolerable situation to be rectified urgently.'
'A petition with so many signatures - HOW CAN THIS BE IGNORED? There should be legislation in place to make sure all items put before our Government are properly answered.'
'We have paid our contributions all our working lives & regardless of where we choose to live in the EC our governments have a moral duty to look after us. It may be that up to 100,000 people may have no alternative but to return to the U.K. None of us want to be a burden on anyone.'
'This tardy response from Downing Street does not surprise me. I don't think there is enough votes in this for the government to trouble themselves, they are not interested in the 'little people'.'
Petitioners note the British Government's response to the petitions submitted regarding similar property-related problems in Goa, and also Cyprus. We also note the interest and detailed reply given by the British Government to a petition concerning Sandbag and Hesco, a dog and cat in Iraq, and I insist that each one of our petitioners warrant equal, if not more attention. Your reply Sir, which will be made available to all petitioners, is awaited.
Yours faithfully,
Suzanne Wyatt
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The Government response to the above noted petitions can be read here:
Regarding Goa:
http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page20337
http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page19848
Regarding Sandbag & Hesco:
http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page20246
THE EU, BRUSSELS:
Letter received from the EU Committee on Petitions 13 July 2009, confirms that Our Petition is admissible in accordance with the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament. The Committee has started an examination of our petition and has asked the European Commission to conduct a preliminary investigation regarding bank guarantees and their reimbursement. Further examination of our petition will continue by the EU.