Region’s coast disappearing under a landslide of cement

WILL changes to the Coast Law threaten what remains of the Alicante coast?

Greenpeace fears that allowing construction within 20 metres of the shoreline instead of the former 100 metres could open the door to more over-development.

Spain destroyed coastal land equivalent to eight football pitches each day for 18 years, Greenpeace claims. 

The report refers to the period between 1987 and 2005 and the environmentalists admit that the crisis has restrained uncontrolled development since 2008.

Eight of the 25 most glaring cases of overdevelopment are located in the Valencian Community and they include three Alicante province municipalities: Calpe, Pilar de la Horadada  and Torrevieja.

Seventy per cent of Calpe’s 500-metre deep coastal strip is developed, a figure that rises to 83 per cent for both Torrevieja and Pilar de la Horadada, Greenpeace found.

Without mentioning Greenpeace, Valencian Community president Alberto Fabra hastened to defend the region. 

A fifth of the coast is protected, as is 44 per cent of the region’s land, he claimed.  This is 11 per cent more than the Spanish average and twice as much as the EU’s.