Torrevieja Town Hall has started the demolition of a small viewpoint along the Punta Margalla promenade, which was built six years ago on maritime-terrestrial public land without authorisation or a concession from the Coastal Authority. The municipal intervention went largely unnoticed because it overlaps with ongoing regeneration works on the coastal facade of Los Locos beach.
The operation affects a paved area of roughly 160 square metres situated on the first line of the coast, near the promenade fountain. The works involve removing the technological wooden planks that had been installed and demolishing the concrete foundation on which the viewpoint rested.
The demolition will not lower that section of the promenade down to the lower level of the rocky coastal zone. The current configuration of the ground will be maintained, although the built surface will disappear and the finish will be left as a dirt surface. The work also requires two lampposts to be relocated.
The territorial coastal service instructed Torrevieja Town Hall to remove this occupation when the municipality requested authorisation from the State Administration to carry out the regeneration of the Los Locos beach promenade. This latest project affects maritime-terrestrial public land and transit and protection easements, as well as including areas close to the Punta Margalla promenade. Therefore, it requires express authorisation subject to deadlines.
The processing of this authorisation allowed the Coastal Authority to demand that the municipality remove this specific part of the promenade—inaugurated in July 2019—if it wished to obtain approval for the Los Locos promenade works already under way, considering that it occupies the sea shore zone integrated into maritime-terrestrial public land.
The same coastal sources specify that the file concerning the occupation of public land without authorisation or a concession does not carry a financial penalty in this case, and the State Administration itself classifies the invasion of public land at this point as being of limited dimensions. The final demarcation of the coast along this stretch of the Torrevieja coastline was approved in 2015.
The remodelling of the Punta Margalla promenade was incorporated into the 2014 Provincial Cooperation Plan of the Alicante Provincial Council. This may explain the prior error, made before the final demarcation, of including that area in the project. The intervention covered the coastal front located between Punta Margalla and Avenida de las Habaneras, in the direction of the Palangre bend.
Although the works were subsequently awarded for about 826,145€, their execution did not begin until 1 February 2019, and the promenade was inaugurated in July of that same year. The delay was mainly motivated by the demands of the awarded company to incorporate cost overruns, something the local government of the time did not accept. But the budget eventually reached 987,181€.
The intervention aimed to specifically improve accessibility and pedestrian traffic along a stretch of coast heavily utilised throughout the year and especially in summer. The remodelling went beyond the replacement of pavement. It included new lighting, green spaces and gardens, viewpoints, children’s play areas, outdoor exercise equipment and rest areas, alongside the renewal of other elements and materials on the promenade.
The Town Hall has also taken advantage of the start of the promenade remodelling works, which span a wide section of Avenida de La Purísima between Calle La Sal and the Palangre bend, to remove tonnes of construction waste and other debris accumulated on the municipal estate of El Palangre since the works on this pedestrian space took place.
The enclosure was utilised at the time as a provisional storage area. The metal fencing, which displayed an advanced state of deterioration next to the avenue and the three single-storey municipal properties where employment workshops were once held, has also been removed to prevent its collapse. The Works and Services department directed by Sandra Sánchez has various alternatives on the table regarding the treatment of the plot, which does not form part of the regeneration. The land was going to be integrated as a green and public amenities zone into the land redevelopment planned in that block to build four skyscrapers on the front line. But a Supreme Court ruling maintains for the time being the invalidation of projects on the Torrevieja front line that contemplate high-rise towers.
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