The Regional Supreme Court has just rejected the Town Hall’s last possible appeal against a sentence that will force Hotel Bahía Tropical (Taramay) to carry out partial demolition. This 4-star hotel, known popularly as El Hotel de los Futbolistas, first opened its doors eight years ago on the 14th of July 2001.

In 2007 the TSJA (regional high court) annulled the building licences dating from the year 2000, which permitted the construction of six hotels in Almuñécar. The court sentence considers that the document was an ‘undercover’ modification of the standing PGOU. One of those six hotels, is the one in question.

The culprit behind these building permissions appears to be the now very controversial ‘modificaciones puntuales,’ of which over a hundred have been made. These modifications are, in effect, changes to a standing PGOU without resorting to drawing up a new one. These modifications should have been sent to the provincial administrations for approval, but they weren’t.

This time, however, the culprit was not the present mayor, Sr. Benavides, but a coalition council of the PSOE and PP, with Juan Luis González Montoro as mayor. However, all political parties voted in favour, including Sr. Benavides’ party.

Does this mean that demolition will begin immediately? Not a chance, because the Town Hall will probably try to appeal before the Tribunal Constitucional (which is a parallel court to the Supreme Court, one which deals with cases where somebody’s constitutional rights have been infringed.) Whether the TC accepts the appeal, is another matter, because as the SC pointed out, the TC has previously ruled that the ordinary courts – from municipal up to the SC, are the ones that should deal with these kind of legal affairs.

However, a possible appeal before the SC will not stay the sentence, which must be carried out before five years is up.