Chiringuito owners plead to delay restaurant’s demolition

Staff at La Antigua chiringuito restaurant on El Saladillo beach in Estepona currently face unemployment, just as the high season starts, after the local council issued the restaurant with a demolition order for today (Friday).

The council have stated the restaurant should be demolished on the grounds that it is illegally occupying land which belongs to the council and should be available for the public and traffic to pass through.

The French owners, who bought the plot three years ago after renting it for 11 years, hope to delay the demolition until after the summer. However, the council maintains that the owners did not obtain permission to put the restaurant in its current location and in fact began proceedings against them in 2012. Since then, the council has reportedly tried without success to make the owners relocate the restaurant.

Daniel Romero, the manager of La Antigua, which employs up to 57 people in the summer, has criticised Esteponas mayor, José María García Urbano, for contradicting himself after talking constantly about increasing work opportunities.

The manager also complained that in other towns the council has supported businesses who have found themselves in the same situation, but here it is the opposite. We are fully prepared to demolish the restaurant ourselves in October, and start from scratch on a legal site, but let us finish the high season here first, he added.

Councillor for Infrastructure, Ana Velasco has responded to the owners requests to delay demolition saying the council doesnt want to force unemployment but it has to fulfill legal requirements, and the owners have had five years to resolve this problem.