The Good Folk of Morche are far from pleased to see the sand from their beach being lorried off to replenish Playa de Ferrara in Torrox.

The sand is being taken from Playa del Cenicero and Playa Las Lindes and trundled off to the said beach where the chiringuitos are.

“At first they told us that they were only going to scrap off a surface layer but we can see that they have already been at it for two days removing three lorry loads each day, from an area that certainly does have a lot of sand,” explained the Chairwoman of the El Morche neighbours assocation, Irene Bueno.

She also expressed her concern that the sand was being taken from near the Dunas de La Carraca, which is a protected area.

She said that they managed to stop the process on Monday afternoon by gathering on the beach where the operation was taking place.

However, by Wednesday the sand transfer had restarted owing to the presence of the Torro Policía Local and the Guardia Civil.

“We are solidary and wish all the beaches within the munipality were in good shape, but what we don’t want is for them to destroy one beach in order to regenerate another,” she explained, adding, “as soon as the autumn gales come, they [Playa de Ferrara etc] are going to lose it again.”

“The Mayor told us that they would remove just a small part and that they would obtain the rest from the area near the breakwater on Ferrara and from Río de Benamargosa, but we can see that they’re not stopping and keep removing more.”

The Mayor, on the other hand, said that beach regeneration along the Costa del Sol is exclusively the responsibility of Costas, belonging to the Central Government although he admitted that the Junta gave permission from an environmental point of view to remove sand from the river.

Costas has been working on 40 beaches within 14 coastal municipalities since the beginning of May, shifting around 300,000 cubic metres of sand – an operation costing just over two-million euro.

(News: El Morche, Axarquia, Costa del Sol, Malaga, Andalucia)