The Almuñécar Town Hall has waded in on the side of the three threatened beach buildings; two in Almuñécar and one in La Herradura.

The three establishments, Windsurf La Herradura, Windsurf Playa Velilla and Actividades Náuticas Dani’s, have all had their licence renewal refused, by the Junta, which will mean demolition and resiting; no matter that at least one of them has been where it is for over three decades.

Support for the affected businesses has been massive on social media, as well as on the ground by the Asociación de chiringuitos de la Costa Tropical and now the Town Hall.

The Delegate for the Environmental Department of the Junta de Andalucía decided on the refusal based on the Ley de Costas, which stipulates that this kind of establishment must be sited off the sand or at the very least at either end of a given beach.

And so a legal battle begins between unbending bureaucracy and common sense.

“The fact that after 30 years of work and effort, the Junta is forcing them to demolish their facilities and move to the end of the beach, is senseless and unjust; they have all my support and we shall fight this together,” stated the First Councillor for La Herradura (PP), Juan José Ruiz Joya on his facebook account.

In his opinion, it is the total lack of knowledge of the area that has led the Junta (PSOE) to make this controversial decision.

In the case of Windsurf La Herradura it is not only a controversial decision but an erroneous one, as well, as both ends of the beach are already occupied by chiringuitos, which is a pretty clear indication that the Junta does not know the situation on the ground and has blindly applied the law governing coastal areas.

Quite apart from the fact that the areas are already occupied by chiringuitos, even if they were not, these locations would be totally inadequate because of the rocks – hardly a place to launch craft.

Editorial comment: the Chiringuitos in the twin municipality of Almuñécar and La Herradura have been allowed to remain where they have long stood, as an exception to the Ley de Costas, on the condition that they carry out building reforms to bring them into line with other aspects of the Ley de Costas, so it is all the more ridiculous that the Junta has denied the three nautical-activities businesses the same leeway.

(News: Herradura/Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)