Alex Trelinski
TOILET and shower blocks as well as 81 unlicensed pre-fab homes have been sealed off by authorities at a Mar Menor camp site.
Cartagena City Council made its move following an inspection at Villas Caravaning in Playa Honda.
The blocks were deemed to be in a ‘state of ruin’ and posed a ‘danger to users’, though one has been cleared as fit for purpose.
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The pre-fab properties had been erected without permission despite the council ordering the site owners to cease activities nearly three years ago,
The council referred to two serious fires in 2021 and 2022, with an 85-year-old German man dying in one of them.
In 2023, management and residents started safety improvements to avoid the site being shut down.
Cartagena council said a fresh sanction order has been slapped on the site owner, Caravanings Costa Calida SL, who ignored previous demands to cease activity.
Instead, they built new facilities without authorisation including the 81 properties.
The authority’s technicians are also investigating ‘the possible existence of illegal connections to gas and sewage networks’.
The campsite was granted a licence back in 1985, under a previous owner.
A new application was submitted in 2020 but was denied two years later leading to legal action from the council.
In turn, the operator filed an appeal against the order which has still to be resolved in the courts.
Cartagena council said in a statement: “Our action seeks to guarantee the safety of people and to stop illegal homes appearing on land intended for tourist and endowment use, where the legal situation make it incompatible to have permanent residences on the site.”
