Madrid has called for an urgent meeting with the Junta de Andalucia to discuss the long-awaited demolition of the notorious Algarrobico hotel in Almeria.
It comes after Andalucia’s Consultative Council declared the building licence for the half-built hotel null and void.
The ruling is being hailed as a decisive step towards tearing down the concrete eyesore, which has stood for two decades inside the protected Cabo de Gata-Nijar Natural Park.
Sources at the Ministry for Ecological Transition said the national government had pushed the process forward and had always defended the licence being declared invalid.
They described the latest development as ‘a determining step to end this environmental attack’.
The 411-room hotel was built in Carboneras after a licence was granted in 2003, despite the land being subject to environmental protections.
Greenpeace has welcomed the decision, with its Spain director Eva Saldaña saying it represents ‘much more than the cancellation of a building permit’.
She added: ‘We celebrate the end of impunity on our coasts.’
Luis Berraquero, Greenpeace coordinator in Andalucia, said there were now ‘no more excuses’ for the hotel to remain standing.
‘Every day that the hotel remains standing is an affront to justice and to our common heritage,’ he said.
‘It is time for the machines to go in and for the Cabo de Gata-Nijar Natural Park to recover what should never have been taken from it.’
Greenpeace argues the licence was illegal from the start because it breached the environmental plans governing the natural park.
The group said it will now immediately ask Carboneras town hall to order the demolition of the building.
A 2011 agreement between the Spanish government and the Junta de Andalucia sets out how the process should work.
Under that protocol, the State would be responsible for demolition and clearing the rubble, while the Junta would handle environmental restoration and waste management.
The Algarrobico has become one of Spain’s most infamous symbols of illegal coastal development, with more than 50 court rulings linked to the case over the past 20 years.
Read more Andalucia news at the Spanish Eye.
