Well, take a long look at the photograph above because very soon the path linking the walkway between Aguamarina and Cabo Roig will once again be ‘bricked up’.

Despite being pulled down a little over 18 months ago, in March 2015, having been declared illegal in two judgements, by both the Administrative Court in Elche and the High Court of Justice, the residents of Bellavista 1, through who’s urbanisation the pathway runs, were adamant that the findings were completely wrong.

Community President Brian Hoeness explained that the original walkway was actually located at the bottom of the cliff face and not along the top of the urbanisation as stated by Antonio Zapata, the Orihuela Town Council Planning Officer at the time.

Indeed the Leader, which had access to the Appeal Court Decision, issued on 30 September, by Judge Mr Salvador Bellmont Lorente, can confirm that the Owners Association were able to demonstrate to the courts that the walkway directly along the seawall and in front of the urbanisation has always been private land, and they were completely within their rights to section it off from access to the general public.

It judgement also states that the upper part of the walkway, along the cliff front, corresponds to a footpath, it is a private perimeter road and it is the property of the urbanisation to section off as they see fit.

As such the urbanisation has also been awarded costs with the Orihuela Council now being required to both compensate the owners, who were so badly affected, and to restore the dividing wall to it’s previous state.

Although the Ayuntamiento had 15 days to lodge an appeal they chose not to do so. It would therefore appear that they have accepted the judgement in its entirety and will not be seeking to revive the matter again.

I did try to contact the councillor for Tourism by email on two occasions but received no response.

Of course, not only is this judgement now a major embarrassment for the Orihuela Town Council, which will no doubt immediately throw it’s arms in the air, stating that it was all the fault of the previous administration, but the 2000 + residents of Aguamarina, and the many thousands more holidaymakers, who have now come to accept the route along the front of Bellavista as normal will, once again, be required to take the long detour back up to the N332 and then down the Avenida del Cabo to the seafront, missing out on one of the most stunning vista’s along the whole of the Orihuela Costa.

So what might be next? Well the obvious answer would now seem to be for the Council to build a walkway in front of the cliff face, an excellent example of which can be seen further along the front at Playa de Aguamarina, running toward Campoamor Beach, but it will obviously come at a cost and in view of the time that they seem to be taking restoring the pathway a mile or so further north, between Cala Capitan and Cabo Roig, it might not be too wise to hold your breath just yet!

This post is also available in: Spanish

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3 COMMENTS

  2. We are gutted to hear of this decision, we are an elderly couple who have holidayed at Aguarmarina for 7/8 summer weeks per year for the last 14 years and as we love Cabo Roig beach we carry our beach gear that way frequently in the Spanish heat. We have noticed since this pathway has been opened that a lot of traffic goes through and NOBODY causes any disruption to the residents. In fact, apart from 2 of the properties, there is never anybody staying in them – they are all locked and shuttered. We really do consider this to be an entirely selfish act on the part of the residents there as it is not necessary for them to stop people walking through. Just consider how far we have to walk to Cabo Roig beach from Aguaramarina as an alternative.