Expensive 1983 decision

ANDALUCIA’S Supreme Court ((TSJA) rejected Nijar town hall’s appeal against paying €8.7 million compensation for halting a 1982 building project.

Developers had originally intended to build 300 properties on a 151,000-square metre seafront plot in the La Fabriquilla area that Nijar town hall confirmed in May 1982 was classified for building.

In October 1983, after construction had begun on the first 48 apartments and a villa following an investment of 75 million pesetas (€450,748) work was halted owing to Almeria Bay’s “great ecological value.”

This was followed by successive legal proceedings ending with a TSJA ruling in 1997 that catalogued the La Fabriquilla area as building land although the Junta did not accept the ruling, alleging the incompatibility with plans for the Cabo de Gata-Nijar national park

Following this latest victory for the landowners, Nijar town hall must now pay up to compensate for landowners’ loss of earnings and “moral suffering” as the TSJA has ruled out a further appeal.