The Almuñécar branch of the PSOE wants explanations from Mayor Juan José Ruiz Joya on the lack of progress on the Parque Azul de Vida Submarina.

This opposition party says that although they still support the core concept of the project and are willing to help find an alternative location, they still insist that the Councill must take responsibility for poor management.

Above all, they want explanations from the Mayor of Almuñécar regarding over 600,000 euros of European, Next Generation funds that have been spent, despite the execution deadline expiring three months ago with no project completed.

The project was heavily promoted, starting in 2021 and showcased at the Madrid tourism fair, FITUR in 2022, whilst the construction contract wasn’t signed until August 2024.

So what has happened since then? The project was halted just weeks after the contract started because the Town Council lacked the necessary permission from the Costas Department of the Central Government to fiddle around with the seabed; i.e., maritime-terrestrial public-domain concessions because Almuñécar had not finalised such details as location, materials, or sculpture types.

The obligatory, compatibility report was requested after hiring the sculpture, construction services, right as the European funding deadline was nearing its end. In other words, they had gone ahead ordering sculptures to be placed on the seabed when they still didn’t have permission for them, because the window to obtain the EU grants was closing rapidly.

“The PSOE candidate for the coming municipal elections, José Díaz, asked, “How can a contract with these characteristics be launched and spending advanced without previously clearing up questions as basic as where the sculptures can be placed, what characteristics they must have, or whether the competent administrations authorise the action?”

Now, getting the boot in is important when you’re in the opposition so the PSOE pointed out a contradiction between the the Junta’s (run by the Mayor’s party) enforcing strict fishing bans in the protected Punta de la Mona conservation area whilst the local PP-led Town Council pushed forward a major underwater project without securing environmental guarantees first.

Tricky to wriggle out of that one, obviously. Anyway, The opposition points to an evolving pattern, according to them, of plenty of dosh being spent on advertising campaigns for projects, to be then followed by administrative failures.

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

Keywords: Underwater Park, Sunken Sculptures, Expensive Promotional Campaigns, Lacking Authorisation

news, andalucia, granada, costa tropical, almunecar, underwater park, sunken sculptures, expensive promotional campaigns, lacking authorisation