Carboneras agrees to review El Algarrobico's license amid criticism from Greenpeace over the procedure.

Almería/Madrid, July 11 (EFE) - The Carboneras (Almería) City Council approved this Friday the start of the ex officio review of the building permit granted in 2003 to the El Algarrobico hotel, in a plenary session criticized by Greenpeace, which considers it a "totally unnecessary" method and one that comes "seven years late."

The proposal was approved with seven votes in favor: from the mayor, Salvador Hernández (Cs), from the PP municipal group, and from an unaffiliated councilor, Andrés Belmonte, a former Socialist councilor although formally still a member of the Socialist group.

In fact, the plenary session was held with only seven of the corporation's thirteen councilors present, in a session marked by absences and cross-political allusions.

"I deeply regret that Socialist Party councilors did not attend this plenary session to debate a license that was granted in 2003, when the PSOE governed Carboneras and Andalusia," the mayor said during his speech.

From "a dream" to "a nightmare"

Hernández insisted that the review of the license is not a response to political will, but rather a court order from the High Court of Justice of Andalusia (TSJA), which has required the City Council to enforce the final rulings.

"We are bound by the TSJA, and this is just another step in the journey, we could say, of the soap opera that has been this failed El Algarrobico project," he stated.

"What was once sold as a dream for the people of Carboneras has, over the years, become a nightmare for this town and, if you ask me, for the entire Levante region of Almería," the mayor lamented.

The ex officio review of the license granted in January 2003 to Azata del Sol SA is based on Article 47.1.f of Law 39/2015, which declares administrative acts void when essential procedures are omitted or issued without the legally established procedure.

The plenary session has agreed to initiate proceedings and open a ten-day hearing process for interested parties, a preliminary step to a possible declaration of nullity.

Greenpeace celebrates it

The environmental organization Greenpeace welcomed the council's decision, but considered it "seven years late and using a method that is completely unnecessary."

Environmentalists have asserted that there was no need to hold a plenary session for a decision that would have to be made by the mayor, and have therefore viewed this strategy as "another mechanism the City Council is implementing to delay the execution of court rulings."

Greenpeace has also warned that there are still unresolved issues and has urged the Andalusian Regional Government to begin the expropriation process for the portion of the hotel's land that sits within the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park.

More than 20 judicial pronouncements

The 411-room hotel was halted in 2006 and has accumulated more than twenty court rulings questioning its planning and environmental legality. The latest final ruling by the TSJA (High Court of Justice), in 2021, ratified by the Supreme Court, requires the City Council to expressly revoke the license as a precondition to its demolition.

Meanwhile, the same court issued new warnings to the city council this week, giving it ten days to comply with the publication of the amended General Urban Development Plan (PGOU). Failure to comply with this requirement, the TSJA (High Court of Justice) has warned that it could impose coercive fines and has requested that the official responsible for the non-compliance be identified.

At the end of the plenary session, Salvador Hernández publicly called on the Andalusian Regional Government and the central government to sit down with the City Council and the development company to find "a less painful solution for Carboneras," and warned that "the Algarrobico hotel can no longer be used as a weapon between political parties."