Ronda ecologists fight pending building project

RONDA ecologists aim to fight approval of a project for a luxury hotel and 18 homes that has been causing disagreements for 30 years.

Ecologistas en Accion claim the building work, planned on a 14.5-hectare site on the edge of La Hoya del Tajo, would negatively affect the environment, and is on protected land.

Although the council gave the project the green light initially, it later removed the site from the General Urban Development Plan in 1993, meaning the land could not be built upon.

The final decision currently lies in the hands of the Junta de Andalucia regional government, although the project was backed up by a Supreme Court decision which found in the developer’s favour.

Ecologist group leader, Alejandro Moreno, blamed the council, insisting that the land falls inside an Intercontinental Biosphere Reserve area, and declared that the problem could easily be solved by offering a new site for the project.

Yet the council insisted it had to follow the court sentence and did not have €10 million to spend on land.