This refuge! This quiet sanctuary away from the pace, hassle and bustle which is the world beyond the shelter of the Hondon Valley. This beautiful Spanish neighbourhood nestling in between the mountains less than one hour’s drive from the golden beaches of the Costa Blanca coast.
It is a region which can trace its roots back to Roman Times, the stone terracing still surviving, although unused and overgrown on the mountain side give presence to that period. The small stone huts dotted around the landscape show evidence of a later period, when men toiled the fields and these stone constructions were places to rest from their labour.
This valley, this refuge from the madness of the outside world, it is where the quiet relaxed pace of time is paramount to everyday living. The mixture of different people mainly north Europeans who have found the delights of this place in the clean air of the mountains making it their home, mixing in as one, creating a contented community with its self governing bodies controlling the smooth running of events.
From their humble beginnings the two communities of the valley with their grand old Churches to the centre of each were built and named by the Dominican Friars all that time ago. As the bells of the churches mark each hour the surroundings progress into the new age well equipped to welcome all who wish to live or holiday in its peaceful environment.
Stop!
There is a threat of this tranquillity being destroyed by speculators who wish to start an immense change to the beauty of the village, instead of the pink blossom of the almond trees spreading across the valley in January there will be tower blocks, how many new homes I’ve heard as many as fifteen hundred.
If this development is approved it will mean two, maybe three years of noise, from earth diggers and chain saws also hammering to destroy the peace of the valley, accompanied with clouds of dust from the building works to destroy the very air we breathe.
In the streets of the village there will be construction traffic, continuously pumping diesel fumes to lay between properties.
When the project is finished and all these families move in, each with their own transport, fifteen hundred people, that is fifteen hundred cars to clog up the streets with more pollution to foul the air, and that steady hum that traffic and items like air conditioning produce in towns and cities.
There is also the question of facilities. Electric supply now frequently goes off, is there enough power for this new complex?
This vast complex is being sold as a resort, what ever word is used to make it sound nice … it is still flats!
We live in a community where it takes a week or more for a doctor’s appointment, with this new influx how will that change? It certainly will not be shorter.
This act of vandalism, if this proposal is to proceed, the charm and the calm of the Hondon Valley and surrounding areas will start to change, it will be similar to a cancer and will spread.
For certain once approved other parts of this delightful valley will be under the developers gaze and sure as eggs are eggs it will not be long before we live in a vast enlargement of building works, La Marina near the coast comes to mind which construction has been expanding for tens of years.
© Percy Chattey
Author Journalist
