Another legal challenge to a Camposol project fails – this time the court gets tough

A legal challenge involving the Camposol asphalting project is again dismissed by the courts in a lengthy saga

In court documents published on November 15 the Central Administrative Court of Contractual Appeals in Madrid has thrown out a challenge to the drafting of projects for major road works in the Mazarrón municipality, one of which is the dual carriageway on the Camposol urbanisation.

This comes hot on the heels of another quashed appeal by the same court against the contract to overhaul the Camposol official plan.

News of the latest challenge to be dismissed by the courts involves part of the “Mazarrón Urbano” incentive, a road redevelopment plan that the council presented May 2021 which is intended to change the image of the municipality. Part of the plan is a project to asphalt and improve 4 major roads in the municipality, three in the Puerto de Mazarrón and one in Camposol.

Currently the procedure is in the planning stage with tenders having been awarded to draft the project and specifications for the contract for the work involved to in turn be put out to tender. However, the process has been fraught with delays caused by legal appeals against the contracting process.

The latest challenge was lodged by the Association of Civil Engineering Consulting Companies in the Region of Murcia (A.E.C.I.C.), who also lodged an appeal against the same project earlier in the process. The Association are not complaining about the winning bid but the legality of other failed bids. When the appeal was lodged the court suspended the administrative process of the contract and invited the other bidding companies to join the appeal but all declined.

After reviewing the appeal, the court found that the grounds of the accusations were not viable and that the Association itself did not have the legal standing in this case to put forward the challenge. The court also noted that this was the second time the Association had appealed against this contract using the same reasons which had already been dismissed. One of the side effects of a contract being challenged is that the contract procedure has to be suspended until the court can investigate and hear the case, which takes time and delays the works.

In the court ruling the Association’s appeal was dismissed and in the summing up the court found that the Association’s challenge was made in “bad faith and recklessness” and imposed a punishment fine of one thousand euros. The court also lifted the suspension on the contract.

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