In an Extraordinary Plenary Meeting of the Almuñécar Town Council the debating went on for hours – they were voting on the 5-star-hotel licence.

The Complejo Residencial Salud y Natura S A., Gran Hotel Cortijo de Andalucía has long been a source of controversy, which is why it has stood semicompleted this last decade or more.

Hotel owner, Trinitario Betoret, who also built the gasolinera underneath the sports grounds stands, as well as reopened the old Hiper Supermarket for a year or two under the supermarket chain Eroski, sat through the Plenary Meeting, witnessing the fate of his ‘child’ being discussed.

In the end the motion to cancel its building licence was carried with the votes in favour of the PP (ruling party), IU and Mas Almuñecar, with both the PSOE and Andalucistas (Benavides) abstaining.

The IU leader, Fermín Tejero, said that there was no way that this decision should be delayed any further and that all urban-development infringements should be treated equally.

The Spokesman for the ruling party, Juan José Ruiz Joya, said that he, like just about everybody else, would have liked to see the hotel up and running, but that things had already dragged out too long and all legal reports indicated that the licence had to be annulled.

The Plenary Meeting was taking such a long time that the Mayor had to call a 30-minute recess, during which time all the political groups mingled and sounded each other out.

Hotel Owner, Sr. Betoret, declined to make any comment, after the vote results were given, left as he was with a hotel complex that is 70% finished, but, it appeared, will never be completely finished.

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