(East Coast) If you drive along the eastern coast of the Costa Tropical, between Carchuna and La Rábita, you will see greenhouses below the N-340, virtually on the beach or on a cliff – at the moment there is a battle between Costas and the owners over their future… or lack of it.

“Thanks to the greenhouse,” said the owner of one that is on a beach near La Rábita, “I have been able to bring up my three kids. Now, at 61 years old, where am I going to find work if they make me take it down,” concluding with, “It’s not fair that they take this away from us so that the sea can swallow it up.”

The fact is that these greenhouses have been standing between El Pozuelo and La Rábita for over 30 years – longer than Costas has been in existence. The owner, Antonio Jesús Vázquez, started from scratch when he was only 23 years old, and it should be pointed out, with permission from the authorities back then.

The area where the greenhouses sit is a spit of land that the flash floods of 1973 created and some of the owners even received loans from the same administrative body which today is telling them that they have to go. The then young men that started to work that recently created land saw it as a break from the past; a break from working land for the large landowners that their fathers had sweated away over – it was a chance to be their own men. It was a patch of land sent from heaven, literally, as the huge flooding of 73 had created a no-man’s land; somewhere that didn’t belong to the caciques.

But thanks to a court decision handed down from the Regional Supreme Court of Andalucia, the pending demolition ordered by the Delegación de Costas has been put on hold. The court decided that until the farmers appeal has been resolved, the demolition cannot go ahead – it’s a reprieve, but it may only be a temporary one.

Editorial Comment: everybody agrees that the thousands of square metres of plastic greenhouses that adorn the eastern coast are an eyesore – they make money but are uglier than piles on a camel. There’s no argument there. The Valle de Río Verde made the correct decision to keep farming under plastic out of the valley because tourism and plastic farming just don’t mix.

The governmental department that protects our coastlines – or are supposed to – are very necessary, as they uphold the public nature of coastline and water courses – great, fantastic and well done but there comes a point when this entity is so busy protecting public domain that they are marginalizing the general public. The department’s zeal is almost fanatical where it should be understanding and lax where it should be vigilant. A clear case of its laxity is that bloody great monstrosity of a hotel sitting on a beach in the middle of a national park near Carboneras.

An example of its fanatical zeal is the sabotage to Carchuna beach use, where a kilometric low wall has destroyed all the parking. What difference does a 3-metre strip make to the Carchuna beach, if it were used for parking? None, whatsoever but Costas marked out where the beach ended with almost Germanic precision, without any of the hispanic give-and-take, and thoroughly handicapped the town’s meagre tourist industry.

Getting back to these greenhouses which have been there since 1973… sure, they’re an eyesore and have been so for nearly four decades so what the hell difference does it make now, when everybody is struggling to keep their incomes and put food on their tables? Give them a 50-year lease starting from 73 and then pull them down, if the sea hasn’t already done so by then, because what the elements create they take back sooner or later.

(News: La Rabita, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)

[mappress]