Laurence Dollimore
RESIDENTS in El Palmar are lambasting the town hall for failing to control a rise in illegal constructions.
The increase in low-cost tourism in the area has led to an influx of containers and shacks being built, with estimates putting the number of illegal dwellings at 1,000.
There is no running water or sewage facilities while power cuts are a regular occurrence.
Paco Rosado, president of the residents’ association, says the boom was triggered by the opening of a beach bar in 2000, which quickly turned El Palmar into a trendy, alternative destination.
The dwellings are built on land ceded to families who came to work there in 1931.
Local PP mayor José Ortiz admits that the town hall lacks the resources to deal with the crisis, which recently saw two policemen implicated.
Illegal building still happening – a people who cannot change, that’s Spain.
Stuart, and then they complain when the bulldozers move in. Same old story I’m afraid and until real hard draconian measure are taken by the Government or the authorities concerned by declaring that any property that the legal profession had been involved in by not getting proper building permission from the Junta’s involved will have all their assets taken coupled with a heavy prison sentence. Perhaps that may start to make people change. As for unscrupulous landowners that erect shacks, 48 hrs notice to remove before the bulldozers move in, no if’s or but’s, just like the farmer in the UK that spent £2 million in building a mock castle, demolished to rubble, built without permission. As you well know, Rome wasn’t built in a day.