Guardamars’ Babilonia beach houses to be demolished in the autumn

The administrative process to demolish the majority of the homes on Guardamar del Segura’s Babiloinia beach has already begun, according to the Provincial Coastal Service. This is taking place after the locals have used every legal avenue to halt the process. At the end of last year, the Constitutional Court denied their appeal. Both the Supreme Court and the National Court had heard their cases before.

Since the concessions for these homes, which were constructed along about 700 meters of shoreline at the start of the 20th century, expired in 2018, over a dozen of them have fallen or been demolished because they are unappealing. Because these are homes that impede the continuation and regeneration of the coastline and dune system in that area, those who did seek an appeal were turned down by the Ministry for Ecological Transition for environmental reasons.

The residents of these houses on Babilonia beach have followed the entire legal process to be able to extend the concession of the houses. Now that all legal options have been exhausted, the houses will soon be demolished. The Mayor of Guardamar del Segura, José Luis Sáez, foresees that the demolitions can begin “sooner rather than later” and advances that the procedure is at a point where ” they are trying to unify everything in a single demolition project . Sáez claimed that combining all of the demolitions into one operation “would reduce costs and speed up the process.”

Although they already consider the houses lost, the residents are still trying to negotiate a longer timeline with the administration. According to Manuel López, secretary of the Babilonia Residents’ Association, they have been able “to ensure that the demolitions do not begin until after the summer.”