Twenty years after Jesús Rivera, then head of the Contentious-Administrative Court 2 of Almería, ordered the halt of the construction of the gigantic hotel on El Algarrobico beach, in the Almerian municipality of Carboneras, the Andalusian Advisory Council has concluded that the municipal license that supported the project is null. This is a decisive step, according to Greenpeace, which has been fighting against this monstrosity for two decades, and the Andalusian Government and the central Government, which maintain their commitment to collaborate in the demolition of the building. The Government has requested the Junta for the “immediate convening” of the monitoring commission of the agreement “to address its demolition and the restoration of the site.”
In an opinion dated May 21, the Andalusian Advisory Council — the advisory body responsible for ensuring that the rules and decisions of the administrations in this community comply with the law — concluded that the license granted by the Carboneras City Council in 2003, which allowed the start and practically the completion of the construction of the building on the beach, is null. “For authorizing construction on protected non-developable land and for affecting the coastal easement,” the opinion explains. These two illegalities have been ruled on in a cascade of judgments and court orders issued by the courts in these two decades of legal battle against this symbol of the building frenzy that Spain suffered at the beginning of this century.
But although the illegality of the project was flagrant as it contravened state and regional laws, the building remains there. The Advisory Council’s opinion explains it as follows: “Judicial controversies began around 2006, and since then, in these successive 20 years, only an inadmissible delay has occurred precisely due to such judicial activity, in which both the consulting City Council and the interested companies have evidently participated in exercising their legitimate rights,” referring to the hotel developer.
After countless rulings, the Andalusian High Court of Justice (TSJA) urged the Carboneras City Council to annul that 2003 license. The City Council, which even had to be warned by the court, began the review process. And last December it requested the Advisory Council to rule on the annulment. This body, after reviewing all judicial pronouncements, concludes that the construction license is “null and void.”
“It is a decisive step to definitively close one of the greatest urban and environmental attacks in our country,” says Rocío Díaz, acting Minister of Development, Territorial Articulation and Housing of the Junta de Andalucía. “It represents a key milestone after years of judicial and administrative battle,” adds Díaz, who describes this opinion as “the last major administrative step” remaining. “Now it is up to the Carboneras City Council to bring this matter to a plenary session as soon as possible to formalize the definitive annulment of the license,” the minister states.
From that moment on, the Andalusian Government maintains that it will move “towards the demolition of the building and the restoration of this natural environment, which should never have been threatened.” The Junta and the Government signed a protocol 15 years ago in which both administrations committed to collaborate in that demolition and restoration once the judicial and administrative horizon was clear.
Greenpeace, which has been in this battle for decades, has criticized the “intolerable judicial insubordination” of the City Council during these years. “Today we celebrate much more than the annulment of a building permit; we celebrate the end of impunity on our coasts,” said Eva Saldaña, executive director of Greenpeace Spain, in a statement. “After years of tricks and disobedience by the Carboneras City Council, there are no more excuses: every day the hotel remains standing is an affront to justice and the common heritage,” added Luis Berraquero, coordinator of Greenpeace in Andalusia. “It is time for the machines to enter and for the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park to recover what should never have been taken from it. The opinion is not a suggestion, it is the legal death certificate of the hotel,” Berraquero demanded.
Meanwhile, sources from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition have reported that the Executive “has requested the immediate convening of the Ministry-Junta Monitoring Commission to address its demolition and the restoration of the site.” The Ministry for the Ecological Transition has recalled that the Government “always defended the nullity” of the license “in accordance with unenforced court rulings,” thus valuing the opinion. “It represents a decisive step to end this environmental attack,” the same sources add. “The objective of the Government of Spain is that, finally, this decision is executed, which is not political but a judicial mandate,” said the Government delegate in Andalusia, Pedro Fernández. “There is no other way to recover and restore urban legality than through that demolition,” he concluded.