Alex Trelinski
BENIDORM City Council is going to Spain’s Constitutional Court in a last bid to stop a €330 million compensation payment to developers.
The case revolves around the loss of building rights in the protected Serra Gelada Natural Park.
In June, the Valencian Supreme Court upheld a 2024 award to developers Murcia Puchades Expansion SL and Urban Urban Villajoyosa 2000 SL.
READ MORE:
The money granted is €283 million plus interest, which is over twice the annual Benidorm council budget and would bankrupt it.
The council announced its latest move in a statement published on Monday and said it had ‘expert opinion’ supporting it.
It had to launch an appeal to the Constitutional Court within 30 days of receiving the regional Supreme Court appeal court ruling on June 24.
A meeting of Benidorm council’s cabinet chaired by mayor, Toni Perez, studied reports from municipal lawyers and external legal firms to ‘continue to defend the public interest’.
Perez previously branded lower Valencian court and Supreme Court rulings as ‘nonsense’.
Land in the APR-7 sector of the Serra Gelada had been classified as urban land suitable for development back in the 1960’s.
The Murcia Puchades family had three plots totalling over two million square meters.
Their legal action started after Benidorm City Council voided urban planning agreements first signed in 2003 between then-mayor, Vicente Perez Devesa and several companies.
The agreements were renewed twice in 2010 and 2013 by ex-mayor Agustin Navarro and left open an option to pay compensation to keep constructors out of ‘protected’ areas.
Click here to read more Benidorm News from The Olive Press.
