PP Xàbia demands coastal protection plan and urges halt to reform of the Coastal Law

Monday 14th February 2022 – XÀBIA AL DÍA
Translated from an original article published on Xàbia AL DÍA

The Partido Populares de Xàbia has presented a motion to demand a global strategy for the protection of the coastline and that all the necessary actions be planned in order to protect the coast hit by storms in recent years.

In a statement, it points out that “it is urgent to have a plan that acts against regression and that serves to regenerate the beaches.” They reminded that, after Storm Gloria, they requested measures to mitigate the effects of the storms “and nothing has been done”. They also claim that “it is unknown if Xàbia will be granted the aid of 400,000 euros that the local council requested after the deadline.”

In addition, the PP motion demands that the reform of the Reglamento de la Ley de Costas – the Coastal Law – which is now being reformed and modifies the criteria for demarcation of coastal land), be withdrawn and the claims made by the resident associations along the Valencian coast. The PP points out that, with the new proposed demarcation, a new public domain will be declared that will affect and harm a new strip of private properties.

The PP statement explains that, until now, the limit of the public domain was set up to “where the waves reach in the largest known storms” a minimum of five times in five years. With the new regulation, the limit of the public domain would become “where the wave has arrived only once” and “the possibility of reviewing boundaries towards the sea is eliminated if it is verified that the waves have not reached an area in 50 years”.

According to them, “concessions or extensions will be prohibited when the works or facilities are at risk of being reached by the sea, references to conservation, repair or improvement works within the public domain are eliminated and walks will cease to be fixed edge of the seashore”.

From this it is deduced that the properties that remain within the maritime-terrestrial public domain zone will be left out of planning and must request a concession on their properties with a validity of 75 years. “This means that the properties of residents or commercial premises that are hit by a single storm will become public domain,” they stress.

“The new demarcation will affect areas of Arenal or the Triana neighborhood that will be immersed in a bureaucracy of concessions as their private properties become public domain. It will be then when it will be regretted at not having protected the coast from regression, not having regenerated our coastline, minimizing the effects of storms and allowing the demarcation point to have no inland limits,” concludes the PP statement

The motion requests the Regional Ministry for Ecological Transition develops a global strategy to protect the coast against regression and to minimize the effects of storms. In addition, it demands that the reform of the Coastal Law be abandoned and that, if modified, a new proposal be publicly exposed in which the claims of the residents of the coast are considered.