Politicians were invented to make paper shuffling as complicated and drawn out as possible – and we pay them to do it.

A case in point is the administrative lunacy behind the reparation of a defective section of the A-7 between Carchuna and Castell de Ferro: the Regional Government under the socialists, and the Central Government, under the conservatives, are basically passing the buck, blaming each other for failing to produce the necessary reports and documents.

It is the age-old case of political point scoring to the detriment of the general pubic.

It goes without saying that if nobody within either politically motivated administrative body were to receive a cent in salary until the problem was resolved, the situation would long since have been sorted out.

The Ministry of the Environment in Madrid has finally sent a ‘long-awaited’ document to the Junta de Andalucia, informing them of the environmental impact of blasting – the Junta had demanded the report in order to issue the licence for the said blasting.

The provincial delegate for the Central Goverment immediately demanded that the Junta act with “celerity” and issue the licence so that work can commence… even though summer is now upon us.

The Madrid document basically says that the already existing environmental-impact study is still valid, the construction programme hasn’t concluded, thus the repair work does not need a new environmental-impact report.

The repair work, with a budget of 2.4m euros, will stabilise the subsiding hillside. The trouble is that we’re in June and the A-7 is about to bear three months of its heaviest traffic – not exactly a choice moment to close sections down whilst the hillside is undergoing blasting, but that’s bureaucrats for you.

(News: Carchuna-Castell, Costa Tropial, Granada, Andalucia)