30,000 illegal homes in Málaga, only 16 demolitions

MÁLAGA – It has been calculated that there some 30,000 illegal homes built in the province. Many of them are on ‘non-buildable’ or ‘rústico’ land, or on river flood courses, and the sides and tops of mountains … Yet only a tiny proportion of them have been demolished, which is what the law mandates (restitution to its original state). This permissiveness is owed principally to the fact that there is no politician willing to assume the electoral costs of an unpopular measure. That, and the sluggish speed of justice in Spain. Of course, it’s Nature that loses out, as usual. The provincial Prosecutor//calculates that there were at least 16 demolitions 2013 as the result of having been built on non-buildable land and therefore considered as an offence against ‘territorial ordination’. This is more than can be said for previous years.

The annual report from the Superior Prosecutor’s Office, in its section on the environment, points out that there have been innumerable difficulties in bringing these buildings to court and sentences. When these latter are handed down, adds the report, “every procedural instrument is used in order to delay or impede this measure”. Among other examples it says that a suspended sentence is often requested and a pardon asked for instead – which has the effect of delaying an already lengthy procedure.

(Source: Europa Press / Diario Costa del Sol)