Marina del Este, together with the rest of the marinas belonging to the Asociación de Puertos Deportivos y Turísticos Marinas de Andalucía, is taking the Consejería de Obras Públicas de la Junta de Andalucía to court, as well as the Agencia Pública de Puertos de Andalucía (APPA). As you can imagine, this is a fair indication that they are not happy bunnies.
The said association considers that the managing directors of these public entities, as well as the heads of their legal departments, are guilty of ‘prevaricación & exaccion’ (perversion of the course of justice/corrupt practice and tax exaction)
The accusation also included misuse of power and fraud when the said entities approved a revision of tax in 2006, which in the opinion of the plaintiff was little more than a modification of the concession terms, in detriment of the marinas.
Eleven Andalusian pleasure ports consider themselves to have been adversely affected by these administrative actions: Marina del Este, Puerto Banús, Sotogrande, Cabopino, Marbella, Aguadulce and Almerimar, amongst others.
The association to which they belong has 90% of private, Andalusian ports, translating into more than 60% of the regions private berths.
According to the Chairman of the association, José Carlos Martín, there has been a notorious will to cause prejudice to the pleasure ports, whose competence was transferred from the Central Government to the Junta de Andalucia.
The Chairman also considers that the Junta has been worse than useless (more or less) over the task of creating new marina facilities, as it has not been capable of ‘developing a policy in accord with the region’s necessities.’ He believes that the coasts of Granada and Almería are the two coastlines that have been the biggest victims of the Junta’s ‘laxity and carelessness.’
In Sr. Martín’s opinion the Junta has wasted the ‘best moments’ from an economic point of view, during which there was plenty of capital kicking about, coinciding with finalised projects on the table, pending Junta approval.
Summing up and with legal jargon aside, the marina association considers that the Junta has made a total botch up of handling Andalucia’s pleasure-port resources, from when the administrative authority over the same fell into their butter-fingered hands to the present day… and they want to see political and/or civil servant hide nailed to the door of Justice as retribution and a stern warning to the inept, inactive and indescribably useless.
(News: Herradura, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)