Joe Duggan (Reporter)
THE notorious Algarrobico hotel is built on illegal land, a Spanish court has ruled.
Spain’s Supreme Court overturned a 2014 decision by Andalucia’s TSJA court which ruled in favour of developers Azata Del Sol.
The supreme court also decreed that the land belongs to the Andalucian Junta.
Thursday’s court ruling accepted arguments by Greenpeace and the Andalucian Junta that the land should be protected.
The decision reversed the 2014 court ruling to start rebuilding work at the 411-bedroom complex.
The Almeria property on Cabo de Gata beach has been the focus of a decade-long legal battle.
A building licence was granted for the 20-storey hotel in 2003 with Greenpeace directors dubbing it ‘Hotel Illegal’ in 2006.
It’ll probably be appealed again given the state of the totally daft Spanish legal system. Let us hope this decision is supreme and that the land is now returned to its original state and the developers foot the bill.
Will it be demolished and the rubble removed or left to rot.
Bet this game of Ping Pong continues.
Peter, the rubble will probably be left there for years and weeds will eventually grow through/around it. I doubt anyone will bother to take a special interest in this area once the hotel has been demolished and the overflowing rubbish/recycling bins on the beach with wasps buzzing round them in the summer will probably still be there.
I’ve seen more hideous buildings than that in Spain, for example, the dreadful looking tower blocks in places like Torremolinos and Fuengirola. Still, demolition seems to be their ‘thing’ so it will undoubtedly make someone very happy.
It’s a case of Spain – at least here on the rocky hills of Carboneras – going back to the Stone Age. How hard is it for someone to notice a twenty storey hotel going up on the side of the road, on the beach? No one appears to have, ah, seen a thing, until the wretched building was almost complete. Then, ten years ago, work was stopped by order of a minister in far-off Seville. So, for ten years – so far – we have been treated to neither one thing nor the other. Neither two hundred (more) metres of mountain covered in scrub, nor a hotel that would provide a couple of hundred jobs. Now, if it is demolished, the cost of this, plus the compensation to the building company, plus the *repair* of the crags to their original nothingness, will cost a fortune – easily the price of a new hospital somewhere. What a waste and what bad politicking!
Then, there the overlooked fact that the surrounds of the Algarrobico were also cut, chiseled and worked into foundations for shops, restaurants and bars. These deep scars on the same mountain are (unfortunately) not on protected land. So they’ll stay.
Why would a building company be compensated for having to remove an illegal building?
Using your logic Lenox, once someone gets away with sticking up a monstrosity, they should be allowed to get away with it, for the sake of a few “jobs”. Smacks of blackmail, don’t you think?
The only people who should be compensated for having an illegal building are those who have been conned into it by unscrupulous officials and their hand-in-glove builders, estate agents and lawyers. (Who should also be the ones to pay for it or do time.)
Of course, that will only happen when the Augean Stables are cleaned out, for which, we shouldn’t hold our breath.