Isabel Bolufer: “Cala del Francés is classified as a special protection area”

Tuesday 26th January 2021 | CARLOS LÓPEZ (Xàbia AL DIA)

The controversy over the closure of access to the Cala del Francés, carried out by the family that owns the land, has reached the plenary session of the Xàbia Council held on Monday. It is a controversy in which environmentalists have taken the lead with various public complaints and statements to the Council.

It was the councilor for Compromís, Vicent Colomer who asked about the situation of access to the beach and demanded that the Council require the property to remove the posters “with misleading information” indicating access to La Cala del Francés by another site due to an obvious risk of accident.

In her response, the councilor for Urbanism, Isabel Bolufer, explained that the Council received a request from the provincial area of ​​Costas to inform as soon as possible about access to the Cala del Francés. As indicated in that municipal report, it is mentioned, among other aspects, that access “is not foreseen in the General Plan of 1990, nor in the General Structural Plan in process” and has added the “land is classified as special protection in the Territorial Action Plan for the Green Coastal Infrastructure (Pativel)”. In this sense, she has asserted that under these regional regulations “there is no obligation for the City Council to provide different access.”

The mayor, José Chulvi, has also intervened, who explained that it was precisely because of the Pativel regulations that “the council has to say something” and has said that the Council would have asked the regional government for a report to find out what can be done there.

Subsequently, after the insistence of the councillor of Compromís, joined by the representative for C’s, Enrique Escrivá, that access must be opened again, the mayor has assured that the Council “is doing all the procedures with all legal certainty” and graphically has said “We’re not going to kick the door,” explaining that they are following all the “legally established procedures” and has concluded “that action is being taken to access the Cove in conditions.”

At another point in the debate, to call it something, the councilor for Compromís referred precisely to the alternative access that the property proposes (from Segunda Cala, see panoramic image made this Monday), Colomer has commented that “it is not viable” and he has pointed out that as long as there is no alternative “the council has to demand that the access of a lifetime be reopened.“

The councillor asked directly if the Council had communicated something to the property owner but there has been no response, and the councilor has said that the closure “has been done by the property, because there people enter, camp, smoke and the owners are afraid that it catches fire, that’s why they have closed it, because it is private property“. But she has not said anything about whether an investigation has been opened in this regard.

Pativel and Cala del Francés

XAD has consulted the documentation of the Territorial Action Plan for the Green Coastal Infrastructure (Pativel) and in section 11 Beach Catalog there is no reference to the cove of Francés in the list of beaches in Xàbia. The first and second coves appear, but the next beach included in that document is Cala Sardinera or Almadrava, which groups together with Portitxol, Cala de la Barraca, Ambolo, Granadella, Els Testos, Moraig and Llebeig, these three last belonging to the municipality of Benitatxell.

Another curious thing that Pativel includes is the protection of the ground where the beach is located. It is surrounded by a green mass, but just where the cranes are now, it has not been classified as green or protected.

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