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Pilar García-Trevijano
Thursday, 16 May 2024, 12:56
After years of demands and requests to the central government's coastal department, Costas, to repair a breakwater on Velilla beach in Almuñécar on Granada's Costa Tropical, Mayor of Almuñécar-La Herradura Juanjo Ruiz Joya signed off the project on Tuesday 14 May after the town hall decided to rebuild the defence on its own.
The work, valued at 47,000 euros, has not been without controversy due to the tension between the town and the government to work out who was responsible for the work.
On Tuesday morning local business owners started repairing the damage caused by the waves to their properties due to neglect.
"Today is an important day, not only for Almuñécar, but also for the workers of the restaurant behind me, who had seen how the livelihood of five families had been cut short by the Spanish government's failure to assume its responsibilities in the repair of the Punta Velilla breakwater," said the mayor.
Ruiz Joya recalled that for the last 12 years it has not been possible to walk along the footpath and a after a storm in 2019 the hotel and restaurant to be sealed and closed.
In April this year when the town hall started the works, the government representative, José Antonio Montilla Martos, pointed out that the repair of this beach and the breakwater was a municipal competence because the town hall was responsible for the service road.
Ruiz Joya explained, "The maintenance of the service road is the responsibility of Almuñécar town hall, but the breakwater is a direct responsibility of the government of Spain. And the road could not be repaired over the breakwater if the breakwater had not been repaired."
The mayor went on to say, "If he doubts whose responsibility it is, perhaps it is because he has only been in office for a few days, but I am prepared to send him the reports of his own heads of services and inspectors from the provincial coastal department who say the opposite of what he says, assuring him that coastal protection is his responsibility and not ours."
The town hall has explained that the cost of repairing the breakwater was around 47,000 euros, which the mayor considered an insignificant amount for the central government.
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