Tom PowellGREENPEACE and other local environmental groups are outraged at the Andalucian Supreme Court’s decision to legalise the controversial Algarrobico hotel and are not giving up, following a legal battling lasting years.
Construction on the 21-storey hotel ceased in 2006 after it was ruled illegal- due to the fact it was built on a nature reserve.
Greenpeace have campaigned for many years to have the half-built concrete structure demolished, painting the words ‘hotel illegal’ on its outside.
But now the Supreme Court has reversed the multiple previous rulings and decided the hotel, on a beach in the Cabo de Gata nature reserve, held a legal permit and construction may recommence.
This would be an acceptable trade-off if the same ruling was applied to ALL the other “illegal builds”.
More brown envelopes?
Brown envelopes anyone?
Little people still having their homes demolished but big business and politicians can carry on. Another black day for Spanish building law.
lol only in Spain.
I wish these so called environmentalists would shove off. Readers should be aware that this touchy feely crowd fully support the Junta de Andalucia’s program of demolishing houses and they are no friends of the “little people”.
This cuckoo land comedy has been going on for years and still Rajoy and his buddies scratch their heads wondering why cash rich foreigners are buying property in southern England instead of Spain.
Half a million to buy a 30’s semi in some exhaust polluted London suburb with it’s nightmare traffic queues or sardine tin underground etc…and, for the same money, well we all know what it would buy here…if only Spanish property had a cast iron irrevocable guarantee of legality….If only….
I remember Mrs Prior presenting her petition in Brussels and the Spanish MEP used the coastal building law to demonstrate how Spain is determined to ensure building works legislation is adhered to….What absolute hypocrisy….The brown envelope factory must be on overtime.
£750k for a terraced house in Wimbledon Brian. Back to court for the above for with more appeals no doubt. Maybe the Hotel owner can sue now for delaying the build since 2006. Bit fo a farce this one, why take 8 years to get back to square one.
Come on , this is no surprise really is it , we all knew that in this Banana Republic of Spain this would eventually would be the outcome although there were a few red herrings along the way. Never mind the ordinary citizen of Spain or all the foreigners threaten with demolition orders on properties bought in good faith with the connivance of bent officials , the old brown envelope system of business for politicians and developer buddy’s continues unabated . Sod the ordinary folk how dare they complain !
I agree with all the comments made above. Perhaps the court decided that the demolition of such a huge structure and the prospect of being the demolition capital of the world as well as the banana republic of Spain was a step too far. I hope the dim-witted Junta de Andalucia and their equally dim-witted ecologist cronies are gutted. They need a clear message which is to stick their demolitions where the sun doesn’t shine.
The appalling truth is that Brussels could stop the flow of money to Spain which of course would collapse their economy, sadly that will never happen as it would lead to the domino effect.
This one story of corruption should be enough to stop any sane person from buying any property in Spain – today illegal, tomorrow everything’s lovely – yes but what about the day after tomorrow?
The ecologists’ dream:- poor but happy (eating grass, maybe). Most of our ecologist mates live in the cities and don’t know which end of a cow the methane comes from. They have a Wordworthian view of the countryside, and don’t care that the country-folk have no income, no work and no entertainment. Well, they say, the bumpkins can always come to the city to live… and become ecologists like us!
The best example of Spain not working… 10 years of court cases, appeals, counter appeals, claims and counter claims… Millions spent on lawyers and gathering evidence…And at the end a disgusting disgraceful concrete monstrosity built on one of Andalucia’s last dozen genuinely virgin beaches! Why after a year of deliberation was the decision put off at the last minute for a month? Suspicious? You bet. If the Junta and the State are really up for sharing costs to demolish this carbuncle, as they claim, just damn well do it and pay the developer something from the millions of black money in the coffers to shut him up. Make this go away.
The next phase would be that if all legal properties are made legal, what recourse would the owner’s of demolished properties be. We know how long the justice system works in Spain and know doubt after many years of wrangling most of those effected would possibly not be alive.
P.S
*(legal properties are made legal) Should have read,
illegal properties are made legal. ie: before this is pointed out.
Boycott spain and certainly do not invest a cent……its the only way to defeat the fascists that make the rules as they go along…. #ruinspain