Judge Riviera, our local gun toting wild west sentence swinging sherrif up in town, has proclaimed another one of his excellent “against the big boys” judgments with respects to the the disputed Hotel Algarrobico.
In his sentence he has ruled that the permits granted by the town hall of Carboneras to allow the construction of the hotel were invalid and illegal, as the Ayuntamiento was going against the very letter of several regional and national laws, of which they were fully aware, ranging from the protection of the area as natural park, the Ley de Costas (the law forbidding construction within 100m of the high tide mark), and ignoring the “Plan Parcial” of the area as approved at the time.
He reaffirms that the permits should never have been issued, and raises the question of corruption or abuse of public office in the issuing of the permits, and allowing of the initial construction, both by the Ayuntamiento of Carboneras and the Junta de Andalucia. This is very unusual in a judicial sentence, and hopefully should lead to an independent investigation by central government into the subject.
He further states that the promoter “if not exploiting or encouraging these errors”, was at the very least “taking advantage” of these glaring errors and lack of public duty by the local and regional authorities.
His ruling states that the building is illegal, was illegal, and will be illegal, and furthermore in “C1” natural park. This will, if there is enough political will, open the route for the Junta to request that the Police knock the hotel down without compensation. Hey, there’s already a precedent in this area for this, remember the Priors?
Of course, we are talking about a large company with political cronies in the PSOE and not a quiet retired English couple in the autumn of their years, so no doubt nobody will sign the demolition paperwork and the refusal of the Junta to carry out its legal and moral duties will allow Azata (the Algarrobico promoters and builders) to mount a defense and waste even more of our taxes on repetitious and irrelevant legal defenses. Much like Astrids electric pylon and Endesa, the last time that Judge Riviera stated that something was 100% illegal and should be knocked down within 15 days – it’s still there and nobody from the Junta seems too bothered about sending in the bulldozers?