06.03.09 - 17:33 -
On Monday morning the Partido Popular held a press conference to announce that they would be presenting a motion in Congress calling for the regeneration of beaches with good quality sand and the creation of breakwaters and artificial reefs for their protection.
Later that day the PSOE announced that they too would be presenting a similar motion. It seems that the poor quality sand that the Coasts Authority plans to use for the Costa del Sol has caused uproar in all political quarters.
The PP’s campaign is headed by congress member and former Mayor of Malaga, Celia Villalobos. “It’s an atrocity what they are doing with Malaga’s beaches”, she claimed. She questioned the work being carried out by the Ministry of Environment on the beaches of Torrox, which are continually being destroyed by storms.
Villalobos also pointed out that using land dug out in the construction of the Malaga Metro or from stream beds “goes against EU recommendations”.
The former Mayor was accompanied by provincial president of the Partido Popular, Elías Bendodo, who explaiend that they were to encourage all local councils - both on the coast and inland - to ask for beaches to be built up with quality sand as “tourism affects everyone” and “we mustn’t gamble with the financial future of the province”.
To illustrate their point the PP had produced three transparent cups with sand from the seabed, sand from the beach and sand from streams.
Socialist response
Meanwhile the PSOE congress member, Miguel Ángel Heredia, announced that he would open a debate in parliament on the stabilisation of the province’s beaches and the quality of sand and its origin. Heredia, who met with the head of the Coasts Authority on Tuesday, pointed out that they were still studying the possiblity of taking sand from the seabed in Rincón and Mijas.
