Troubled builder given green light to finish El Pinet
By Dave Jones and Alex Watkins
ELCHE town hall has approved plans to allow building work at half-finished El Pinet urbanisation to be completed.
This comes on the back of the Regional Supreme Court decision in April which turned down an appeal by ecologists who were demanding an end to construction at the site.
Construction company San José Inversiones was first ordered off the land in La Marina de Elche five years ago following the intervention of ecologist group AHSA.
They complained that the urbanisation lies inside the protection perimeter of Santa Pola natural park.
Hundreds of home owners – including scores of British expats – have been living in limbo ever since.
The controversial re-ordnance of El Pinet was finally approved last Friday.
Town planning councillor Alejandro Pérez announced that this was the definitive go-ahead for a ‘special’ project.
He claimed that the town hall had included environmental improvements to the plans at every stage to make the development more sustainable, including the elimination of one of the apartment blocks ‘to make it more compatible’.
He said: “The builders can continue the work at MR-9 and finish the urbanisation.
“The will be the end of one of the development issues which we have pending.”
However with builder San José Inversiones presenting voluntary suspension of payments to the Mercantile Court earlier this year the future is still not clear cut for home owners in situ and buyers who are waiting for their properties.
Administrators have said they want to keep the company afloat by continuing with its building projects.
And this week company boss José Rodríguez told La Verdad newspaper that he hoped to reactivate San José’s fortunes by completing El Pinet urbanisation.
Residents have told CB News that will only believe that their urbanisation will be completed when they see the builders on site and the remaining houses and infrastructure finished off.
They have been waiting for several years for basic infrastructure and a rubbish collection service.
djones@cbnews.es
awatkins@cbnews.es