almería
The Government would support a court ruling to demolish the controversial Hotel Algarrobico in Cabo de Gata Nature Park, says Minister
07.02.11 - 12:04 -
Algarrobico. Activists painted 'ilegal' on the hotel in 2008.
The Cabo de Gata Nature Park in Almeria should be “free” of the controversial Hotel Algarrobico, according to the Government’s Minister of the Environment, Rosa Aguilar.
At a press conference last week, she said that the Ministry was in total agreement with the likes of Greenpeace, and other environmental organisations, who have been calling for it to be knocked down as it was constructed in an UNESCO-protected, undeveloped stretch of the Mediterranean coastline.
If the Andalusian High Court of Justice (TSJA) rules in favour of the ecologists, Aguilar said “The Spanish Government is prepared and ready to collaborate and contribute to its demolition.” She added: “The Government will work with the Junta de Andalucía to “speed-up what the public has always wanted,” she added.
Aguilar’s comments have been welcomed with cautious optimism by Greenpeace spokeswoman, Pilar Marcos. “It is certainly one step forward,” she tells SUR in English. “But it is only, so far, just a public-relations statement by the Ministry of the Environment. We would like Rosa Aguilar to go one stage further and explain in detail how the process will happen.
“Once the court has given its ruling, and hopefully it will be in our favour, the real negotiations will have to take place. We need to confirm the intentions of the Junta and the national Government about exactly how and when the demolition will take place and how they will return the nature park to its original state,” adds Marcos.
The 400-bedroom, 22-storey building has remained partially built since 2008, when the TSJA annulled the original municipal licence to construct the Hotel Algarrobico, after Greenpeace won a legal victory against the Town Hall and the developer. Appeals against that decision from both the local administration and the private promoter are still ongoing.
Over the last three years, the Spanish branch of the international environment activist network has not only fought legal battles with the Town Hall. It has also taken the Junta de Andalucía to court for changing the official land classification of the plot where the hotel was built; and it took action against the national Government for cancelling a previous expropriation agreement.
The organisation has also staged a series of “direct action” protests. In 2008, for instance, activists scaled the building and painted “HOTEL ILEGAL” across its entire façade; and a year later, the lobbyists attempted to “rub it out” by covering the whole building with large, green tarpaulins.
Pilar Marcos confirms that Greenpeace continues to “monitor the situation at every level” and vows to ensure the “right outcome is achieved for Cabo de Gata.”
Nature Park
Cabo de Gata Nature Park was designated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1997 and, covering 460 square kilometres, is the largest terrestrial-maritime reserve in Western Europe.
There are over 1,000 species of plants and 1,110 species of animals recorded in the reserve, some of which are endemic to the park.
Species of fauna include types of flamingos, herons, cranes, puffins, kestrels, eagles, lizards, grass snakes, boar and seals.
