An independent councillor (not assigned to a political party) at Nerja Town Hall, José García, has registered a complaint over restoration work being carried out on the illegal dump in Maro.
He also submitted the formal complaint before the Public Prosecuture for the Environmental Agency and the Ministry for Ecological Transition.
His complaint is over the way that the illegal dump in the Río de la Miel area is supposedly being cleaned up and returned to its previous natural state.
This restoration work started in May with a budget of 1.6m euros, with the object of removing the refuse dumped between 1998 and 2016 – the years that it was operative.
Now, the present Mayor, José Alberto Armijo (PP), the Councillor for Urban Development, Nieves Atencia (PP) and six construction-sector business owners are facing over two years in prison if found guilty in an ongoing trial, precisely for their part in having set up and used the said illegal dump.
Councillor José García explained, “according to the Public Prosecutor’s estimations, the illegal dump contains some 800,000 cu/m of refuse (building material, etc) which represents an elevated risk for the environment,” adding, “what they have done up til now and are continuing to do is to bury the refuse by spreading earth on top of it with heavy machinery.”
He considers that this is not “eliminating the damage caused to the environment but rather has the objective of “diverting, eluding and eliminating” evidence of the crime committed.
According to provision estimations the Public Prosecutors office it will cost 10,738.110 euros to fully restore the affected area. Taking this into account, in October last year the Town Council, in the case that the Mayor and Councillor are found guilty, will have subsidary responsibility and the funds will have to come out of the municipal coffers because the accused’s actions were carried out in a public servant capacity, as public functionaries belonging to the Town Hall.
(News: Maro/Nerja, Axarquia, Costa del Sol, Malaga, Andalucia – Photo: Eugenio Cabezas)