Junta appeals court decision to back Los Merinos developers

September 28, 2007  •  Andalucia  •  0 Comments

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THE regional government has appealed the decision to allow developers to continue works at controversial Los Merinos golf course, near Ronda.

The Andalucian authorities have asked that the July ruling in favour of the developers is overturned.

Environment bosses continue to insist that the double golf course project, including 800 hotels and three luxury hotels, could produce “irrepareable damage” to the area.

Its lawyers insist that developers are illegally developing up to 70 per cent of the land, when they only have permission to transform 25 per cent.

But when they took the developer to court in July to demand a temporary halt, it was thrown out by the Judge Asuncion Vallecillo, who said that the interests of the constructor should come above the public interest.

She considered that the infrastructure works, that have been underway since last year, “could always be reversed and only affect a small proportion of the territory.”

The developers are still being sued by the state prosecutor in Madrid and are also being investigated by the European Parliament.
According to environmentalists Ecologistas en Accion, the project is breaking four EU directives, the environment, water, habitats and birds directive, with the area having the largest concentration of Bonelli’s eagles in Spain.

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