ARCHIVED - Open war at Percheles beach between Mazarron town hall and private landowner

The Public Prosecution Service has admitted a complaint from the town hall

Although Percheles beach is one of the most attractive and calmest beach locations in all of the Murcia region, it has become a simmering focal point for disagreement between the town hall of Mazarrón and the owner of the land which backs onto it, David López, during the last couple of years.

Although Spanish law grants the public access to the beach and establishes an area of public domain which is run by the Costas department of the national government, these public lands inevitably border with land which is privately owned and in the case of Percheles beach, the access road and land behind it, is owned privately by Sr. López.

The public has the right to access the beach from the public road, but most choose to park close to the sands via a privately owned track and park in a car parking area owned by this private landowner.

He wishes to commercialise his assets and for the last couple of years has been charging members of the public wishing to park next to the beach to leave their cars and camper vans on his private land, and has also embarked on a project to build a beach bar from which he can sell refreshments to beach goers, also on his own private land.

Although he has every right to undertake these activities, in order to carry out any form of commercial activity, install fencing or construct a beach bar, he must first seek official licences from the town hall of the municipality, in this case, Mazarrón and ensure that he pays taxes on any income generated through these commercial actions.

This, however, has put him on a collision course with the local town hall, and he has fenced in the land, installed a cabin and charged for parking in spite of being told he cannot do so repeatedly, as he has not obtained the necessary licences.

He maintains that he has applied for the licences, but these have not been granted, and complains bitterly that the town hall has dragged his heels.

The town hall maintains that the correct procedures must be followed, environmental impact reports obtained according to the law and that they have repeatedly requested that the commercial activity stop until the correct procedures have been completed. They cannot force him to stop themselves without following the correct procedures.

The town hall maintains that it lacks the jurisdiction to investigate if the activity of Sr. Gómez is criminal, and that any such investigation must be undertaken by the Guardia Civíl, at the behest of the national government, and they themselves cannot instigate a criminal investigation into his activities.

Last week the head of the PP in the municipality, former Mayoress Alicia Jiménez, raised the subject in the last municipal plenary session, accusing the local coalition government (PSOE and UIDM) of "looking the other way with regards to this problem," and criticising the current council for the fact that “other residents of the village of Cañada de Gallego have organised themselves into an association and contracted a lawyer to try and solve the problem”.

The leader of the Independent Union of Mazarrón (UIDM) and first deputy mayor, Ginés Campillo, who is in charge or commerce and urban affairs in the municipality responded to her accusations by saying that the Public Prosecutor's Office has opened proceedings against Sr. Gómez in order to stop the economic and commercial activity there, paralyse the beach bar that is being built and order the demolition of the fence and the beach bar, stating that "on August 27, the Prosecutor's Office admitted the case raised against the owner of the land as requested by the town hall."

Sr. Gómez denies having received the “formal notification” from the Public Prosecutor and has continued his activities, determined to perpetuate the open war between himself and the local council.
 

Image: @Murcia Today