A FINAL bid to stop 2,200 homes being built on the unspoilt Cala Mosca on the Orihuela Costa has come to nothing at the Valencian Supreme Court(TSJCV).
The local Cambiemos political party and the Valencian Ministry of Transport joined forces to get the Cala Mosca urban plan annulled since it would have a negative impact on the adjoining N-332 highway.
The State Attorney’s Office acting on behalf of the ministry argued that the new development’s traffic study showed there would be heavier volumes of traffic and increased noise.
Cambiemos said the plans were illegal because there wasn’t a favourable report from the General Directorate of Roads.
The TSJCV ruled that there ‘would not be any effect on the road’, but did say their verdict could be appealed at the Supreme Court in Madrid.
The Valencian Ministry of Transport and Cambiemos were ordered to pay costs totalling €3,000 to the two parties they were challenging, namely the constructor Gomendio and Orihuela council, who finally approved the development in September 2021.
Council officials cited that they had to stick to a long-standing agreement with the developer or face being sued for millions of euros in compensation.
As previously reported by the Olive Press, individual councillors claimed to have been threatened by Gomendio.
A one-year PSOE-led administration under mayor Carolina Gracia offered talks with Gomendio in September 2022 to see if they could look for building plots elsewhere on the Orihuela Costa.
That suggestion came to nothing as it was clear the long battle to stop the Cala Mosca development was realistically over.
The highlight of the campaign by residents and environmentalists came in 2010 when the European Union paused the plans after receiving a seven-thousand signature petition which argued that flora and fauna would be damaged.
Arguments continued over the years but things went Gomendio’s way in 2021 when they got a positive environmental impact study from the Valencian government.
The full Orihuela council backed the development the same year and last February a slightly amended Gomeddio plan featured an expansion of a protected micro-reserve area for the rare cat head plant and a slight reduction in the final number of homes to be built.
The Orihuela government team rubber-stamped the project in April and clearance work started at Cala Mosca later in the month.
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