It was back in 2004 when the Seaside Gazette reported on what appeared to be the commencement of an illegal build next to Urbanización El Gallo, Punta de la Mona.
Not only illegal, but the initial excavations took place in a gully, which, after heavy rain at the time, exposed pipes carrying electricity and water to the nearby El Gallo, and now these same excavations have been struck again by heavy rain and appear to have seriously undermined the road above.
At the time, the building was stopped and there was, as usual, very little comment from the Town Hall as to why initial work was allowed to go ahead, and we expect little comment to explain why the excavations were not made safe. Could Town Hall apathy and lax building licence control be a disaster waiting to happen up on the Punta and elsewhere?
Just how safe are the roads and houses in Punta de la Mona? Previous issues have been reported on the extreme damage done to the property belonging to David and Helen Byers all allegedly caused by the building of the Alcazar Hotel, and as mentioned above, the excavations initiated nearby in 2004 are still causing problems today.
At times there appears to be little or no control over who digs or builds where, and that the issue of some building licences are, at best, haphazard.
There is legislation for the Town Hall to issue a building licence in a restricted area like the Punta, and is in the form of an agreement between the town council and the building company, called a ‘convenio urbanistico’. However, (and it is a rather big however), this agreement must be ratified by the Junta de Andalucía. Any such agreement can usually expect very little sympathy from the said Junta as they and the town council are at opposite ends of the political spectrum. This is how a seemingly legal building can be commenced (and even sometimes completed) with all licences in place and in order, only for the Junta to step in and deem the licence and the building illegal. The latest example of this being the current dispute between the Junta and the town council over the elderly persons complex of apartments in the Marina del Este.
The temptation for the town council to issue a building licence and pocket the money in these cash strapped times must be extremely difficult to resist, but looking at the damage to roads and buildings on the Punta makes one feel that a lot more thought and preparation should be applied before grabbing that big fat cheque.
We are not, of course, for one moment suggesting that the Punta is so full of holes and part builds that it will slide off into the sea, but the damage to roads and buildings caused by bad planning and rushed licences is plain to see.
One thing is for sure… if there were any sudden movements of land up there, every official in the Town Hall from the Mayor down would turn their collective hands upward and say “Who me?” closely followed by the architects and then the builders.