No one driving along the CV95 can fail to be dismayed by the neglect to the Casa y Torre de Los Balcones just across the road from the Doña Monse hotel, and the state of disrepair into which its owners have let it fall.
One of the few examples of an 18th-century agricultural manor house that remain on the coast of the Vega Baja the owner was instructed both in 2013 and 2014 to carry out urgent measures to protect the building which he has failed to do.
The only action he did take was to fence the perimeter, so as to avoid accidents with people wandering across the site.
Despite being protected in the 1986 Torrevieja General Plan as a building of special architectural interest the owners of the plot appealed to the court of litigation after an application to build a hotel was turned down.
In the court the promoters said that the cost of refurbishing the property is much greater than that of carrying out any new work, a project which would exceed 600,000 euros
Their appeal was rejected, however, and now the house has finally been appropriated by the city council, but the building is said by experts to be unrecoverable. Most of the roof has already collapsed, and its general condition is derelict, so quite what the council intend to do with their new possession is still very much under discussion.
The owners are now suggesting that they swap the site for development land in another area although the Council has said that the company is in breach of the legislation, and there is no available municipal land to carry out this action anyway.
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