Hotel chain, Fuerte, has announced that their proposed hotel in La Herradura will open its doors during 2012. The said hotel will have plenty of grounds, as the hotel company bought 50,000 sq/m of land just across the road from the beach – that’s the area that was turned into a lagoon when the river wall broke during the floods. Also, the hotel will have the same sort of layout as Hotel Robinson on Playa Granada in Motril.

The drawn out history of the hotel project commenced ten years ago. First of all the Junta was not happy with the project and it took two years to jump that hurdle. In the meantime, the hotel chain discovered that its municipal building licence had expired, and with a change of political party at the helm, (the original licence was awarded by the PP mayor of the time).

Things went to court and a judicial decision found that the licence should not have been suspended. The building licence was awarded but withdrawn six months later, because the Town Hall considered that the development company had not paid a sum of money demanded in taxes. Finally, El Fuerte paid over 25% of the sum demanded, refusing to pay the remaining 75% because the Town Hall normally wavers that amount where the construction of a hotel is concerned, as an incentive.

The PP councillor for La Herradura, Juan José Ruiz Joya, accuses the Mayor of constantly placing obstacles in the way of progress for the project. He says that the Mayor used, as an excuse, alleged economic difficulties in the finances of El Fuerte, which Sr Ruiz Joya pointed out as ridiculous because the same company has just opened a new hotel in Estepona on the 30th of July.