Greenpeace attacks town planning and coast protection
The lack of town planning in the province of Malaga is “the most scandalous” in the whole country, says the ecological organisation
Murcia is the regional community with the most black points along its seashore - seven - followed by Andalucía and Cantabria with six each
The ecological organisation Greenpeace said earlier this month that town planning in Marbella is “the most scandalous” in the whole country and that, after numerous modifications to its Town Master Plan, rejected by Andalusian Government as illegal, this authority has considered removing all competence in town planning from the council. At the launch of a report entitled “Destruction of the whole coast”, the ecological association said that, “in any case”, Marbella is not the only example in the province of Malaga, as the situation is similar in Benalmádena, Vélez-Málaga, Rincón de la Victoria and the city of Malaga.
The organisation added that the tourist industry predicted a drop of 30 points in the level of occupation on the Costa del Sol, “where hotels are starting to be put up for sale due to low profits, but where building work is still allowed to go ahead without any sort of planning whatsoever.”
At the same time, “Fuengirola and Nerja are responsible for the fact that the European Commission has set up a procedure to deal with non-fulfilment of the Directive on the Treatment of Sewage”, stressed the report, which added that “moreover, the province of Malaga has seven beaches which do not fulfil the stipulated sanitary regulations”.
The ecological organisation reported that there are 50 black spots on the whole of the Spanish coastline. It criticised the fact that none of the autonomous communities keeps all its shores in good condition and pointed out that erosion affects 90 per cent of the seashore in the country.
Greenpeace made these criticisms during the launch of the report about the destruction of the coastline, which details the consequences of “mistreatment” of the seashore. The official launch of the report was carried out by the director of Greenpeace in Spain, Juan López de Iralde, and the person responsible for coasts in the organisation, María José Caballero.
Assessment of the various communities varies: the “worst group” includes the Balearic Islands, Murcia, Valencia, the Canary Islands and Galicia, but an intermediate group, including Cantabria and Andalucía, makes “a small effort but not enough” to improve its coastline. Then there is the group formed by Cataluña, the Basque country and Asturias, “which have serious plans to protect the seashore”.
Murcia is the regional community with the most black spots - seven - followed by Andalucía and Cantabria with six each.
