The Barranco de Los Colmenarejos, within the municipality of Nerja, is one of the few remaining periglacial watercourses in the Sierras Tejeda, Almijara, and Alhama Natural Park.

Now, like us, you’re probably wondering what periglacial means, so here’s the definition: it describes cold-climate conditions that are heavily influenced by freezing and thawing, but are not directly glaciated.

This barranco above Maro was the site of a limestone quarry. When it closed down, a score of pieces of heavy machinery & vehicles were left to rust there. That was in July, 2000. The mining company (Orlando S.L.) was still the owner of the inactive property, though.

In fact, Orlando S.L. tried for around ten years to obtain permission, through the courts, to reopen it as an open-mining operation. They claimed that the concession had not expired and only three of the ten hectares had been exploited.

They also cited another quarry located within the municipality of Canillas de Albaida, which remains active despite also being situated within the boundaries of the natural park shared by the provinces of Málaga and Granada.

However, the courts decided to uphold the Town Hall’s decision to close down the quarry. Seeing that they couldn’t restart the quarry operations, they sort permission from local and regional authorities to go in and removed the machinery.

It was announced on Monday by the Mayor of Nerja that after twelve years of bureacratic redtape, the company had finally obtained the go-ahead to remove it all.

Environmental Councilor, Javier Rodríguez that Materiales de Construcción Orlando S.L. had commenced the preliminary work (improving access) which should put the quarry land back to a natural state, rather than being a junkyard. Once all the machinery has been removed, earth-moving equipment will be brought in to restore the area to its natural setting.

It was back in November, 1999 that the Junta de Andalucía began the process of declaring the area of the Sierra Tejeda, Sierra Almijara, and Sierra Alhama a Natural Park. As a consequence, Nerja Town Council declared the quarry’s operating license had expired, along with that of the Río de la Miel quarry; the latter was subsequently used as an illegal dump for building waste, including that of the Town Hall, for 18 years with the Town Hall under the present Mayor arguably turning a blind eye to it.

The Mayor, the Councilor for Housing, Nieves Atencia, and six local, construction businessmen faced trial in late 2022 and early 2023. Amazingly, they were all were acquitted by Criminal Court Number 15.

The indignant prosecutor, who had requested a two-year prison sentence and an 18-month ban from holding public office, appealed the ruling regarding the Mayor. The Provincial Court ordered the lower court to issue a new sentence, including facts that were not in the first trial.

Last February, the court acquitted Mayor Armijo for the second time, a ruling that was not appealed again by the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

(News: Maro, Nerja, Axarquia, Costa del Sol, Malaga, Andalucia – Source article & Photo: Eugenio Cabezas)

Keywords: Quarry, Rusting Machinery, Orlando SL, Mayor Armijo, Illegal Dump, Evironmental Restoration

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