Marina Alta's cliffs in need of more protection

THE Javea Institute of Oceanographic Research (IROX) called for “efficient and real” protection for the Marina Alta’s cliffs. 
An IROX communique revealed that the regional government had asked the institute for more details regarding its claims that more safeguards are required for the Penyassegats de la Marina (La Marina cliffs) which are officially classified as Places of Community Interest (LIC). 
The institute wants the Consell – the regional government’s Cabinet – to apply more restrictions to construction in the protected cliff zones. 
There should be a well-defined right-of-way zone measured from the highest point of the cliff and not the coastline, IROX suggested, or alternatively the strip of protected cliff-face could be increased. 
Sewage, rubble and rubbish is often dumped illegally over the cliffs as a result of the “enormously dense development along the coast,” it claimed. 
The institute also called for a ban on new constructions along the LIC area and proposed that applications for planning permission should be accompanied by geotechnical documentation demonstrating that a new building would not affect the stability of nearby cliffs. 
IROX also warned that the Generalitat should prohibit excavations and earth movement near the cliffs, particularly where the urban zones overlap with cliffs, owing to “numerous rockfalls in these areas,” Irox said.