Euro Weekly News - Costa de Almeria 2 - 8 July 2020 Issue 1826

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News

The people’s paper ISSUE NO. 1826

2 - 8 July 2020

COSTA DE ALMERIA • WWW.EUROWEEKLYNEWS.COM

FREE • GRATIS

NO TO HOTEL A PETITION to put a stop to plans for a fourstar hotel in the Cabo de Gata natural park, one of the last remaining undeveloped areas of Spain’s Mediterranean coast and the jewel in Almeria’s natural crown, is gaining momentum. By the morning of Tuesday June 30 more than 110,000 people had put their name to the online campaign urging the Andalucia regional government to think again on its approval of the project in the park’s Genoveses Bay, less than a week after the petition was launched. The Junta de Andalucia gave the green light to plans to convert the socalled ‘Cortijo Las Chiqueras’ located about a kilometre back from the

DANGEROUS PRECEDENT: The petition argues letting the project go ahead could lead to further similar projects and too many people in the protected area. stunning sandy Genoveses beach into a 30room establishment with swimming pool and parking for 70 cars after concluding the initiative is environmentally viable. The ruling says it is ‘compatible’ with the regulations governing the protected area, after having rejected the company’s original ideas in 2017.

But environmental groups like Ecologistas en Accion Almeria, Grupo Ecologista Mediterraneo, Salvemos Mojacar and Amigos del Parque, as well as the EQUO Spanish Green Party, argue the initiative does not fit with the preservation of the park. On Monday, representatives of the groups presented new arguments

against the project at the headquarters of the Junta’s Agriculture, Fishing and Sustainable Development Territorial Delegation in Almeria City. “However much the effort to make it sustainable and respectful of the environment, it will always have an impact,” the anti-hotel petition states. The petition also main-

tains that if the hotel does go ahead it will set a dangerous precedent. “If today we allow a ho-

tel with 30 rooms, tomorrow there will be another who wants to do the same with 50, and then another with 100, and in the end this such special area which already has too many visitors in summer will become even more crowded.” “The priority should be not allowing the park to become overcrowded and protecting the flora and fauna.” It ends, “Together we will preserve this paradise so it does not end up becoming a little Benidorm.”


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