Cuevas, Pulpi, farmers and landowners have risen up in protest against the “barbarous, unimaginative, ridiculous and expensive” (all adjectives used by them!) plan to save the tortoise implemented by Madrid.
The plan was, you will remember, to expropriate 500ha of land (mainly scrub) and join up two little hill ranges, so the local tortoises could wander about happily without being squashed, stolen or eaten. This was in exchange for taking away part of a designated nature spot in order to build the AVE as it passes through Pulpí.
Anyway, costs for expropriating the land now stands at some 20,000,000€. La Voz points out, somewhat irrelevantly, that this is “half the cost of the new Maternity wing at Torrecardenas”.
One of the fincas to go is Los Olivares, whose owners claim they will have to rip out 80,000 trees they’ve just planted. This is the finca with a lot of trees and a big cave house at the back.
Cuevas has said it will lodge a joint appeal against the plan together with the big landowners.
My wife will get angry if she hears this.