Bob Preston from the AUAN went further, and said that only the Junta's own sub regional plans would provide a long-lasting solution - but warned that it could take years for this to happen.

Mr Preston made the comments after attending last month's symposium on urban development, which was attended by Junta officials and top local businessmen.

He said: "We've been warning expats for a long time that the town plans (the PGOU) would not solve the problem of illegal buildings - but many are still under the impression that it will".

At the two-day conference, the regional government's Chief of Urban Development, Maria Felicidad Montero, dropped a bombshell by saying that only the Junta's own sub-regional plans would solve the crisis.

She also downplayed the importance of the PGOU in Albox, which up to now had been seen as an essential document for legalising properties.

Mr Preston said the realisation would be a timely wake-up call for Brits, many of whom, he added, had been lulled into a false sense of security over the future of their properties.

Despite the glum news, Mr Preston said it was a positive step towards establishing order in Albox. He said: "The sub-regional plan is the only way to do it, because the PGOU is very limited by law".

In an unprecedented move, the Mayor of Albox, Jose Garcia Navarro, agreed to speak about the crisis to expats at a meeting of the AUAN being held today (Friday November 9) at the Garcia Ramos school.

Speaking to Costa Almeria News, Sr Navarro said: "The future for most of the properties will depend on the sub-regional plans, as the PGOU will only determine the legality of a very small number of homes".

He also dismissed a speedy resolution to the crisis, adding that it would "take years" - a bleak prospect for expats hoping to sell their properties.

"There's nothing we can do about that and I'm not here to trick people into believing there is a quick-fix solution" concluded Sr Navarro.

The so-called Strategy for the Sustainability of the Coast, published by the department led by Cristina Narbona in collaboration with the University of Cantabria, took two years to compile and is now awaiting debate and approval by the autonomous governments of Spain’s 17 regions.

Although the final document has not yet been made public, various extracts have been leaked and a preliminary draft is available.

The large and comprehensive dossier identifies areas where the eco-system is at risk from development, and highlights the dangers of living by coastlines threatened by erosion as a result of global warming.

More controversially, it aims to enforce compliance with the newly established 300-metre shoreline protection zone, which would entail the obligatory payment of large sums of compensation by the Spanish government to the owners of many properties rendered illegal by the law.

In the most extreme cases, the introduction of the bill could require “a new model of economic development in certain areas of the coast”, according to the preliminary draft.

The report claims that the coasts of Almería and Granada are the least damaged by over-construction in Spain, while at the same time being the most endangered.

The report says: “The current industrial development taking place in certain areas is causing the rapid deterioration of the coastline and which, in many cases, is irreversible or difficult to remedy.”

In Almería province, the tourist development model of the entire Cabo de Gata nature park has come under fire from the report, criticising the scenic and environmental degradation of the 75-kilometre coastline, as well as the lack of thorough town planning and over-exploitation of natural resources.

More specifically, the plan suggests the removal and relocation of the DSM Deretil antibiotics factory in Villaricos and the Holcim cement plant in Carboneras, as well as the demolition of La Parra and Veraplaya hotels in Aguadulce and Vera respectively, among others

The announcement has been received with shock and outrage by business owners, who believe the plans are unrealistic and unworkable.

The Algarrobicos hotel in Carboneras was used by Sra Narbona as an example of the type of ‘expropriation and demolition’ foreseen in the dossier, and Antonio Baena, spokesman for Azata del Sol, the company in charge of the hotel, dismissed the plans as “nonsense”.

However, a government spokesman insisted that the dossier is not a definite plan to be enforced with immediate action. Alejandro Molins, from the environment ministry, told Costa Almería News: “We have presented the draft to the council of ministers and to the various regional governments, and are currently waiting to hear their opinions so that we can work on a consensus.

“It doesn’t mean that the bulldozers are already lining up to tear down properties.” 

Under the €5 billion (£3.5 million) proposal, the Government would demolish homes, chalets, hotels and swimming pools along a 776 km (480 mile) stretch of coastline. The areas involved are those most popular with Britons, including the entire Mediterranean coast from Barcelona in the north to Marbella in the south, the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands, including Majorca.

It appears that the Spanish Government intends to negotiate with home-owners and regional authorities over the sale of properties deemed illegal, rather than to expropriate them.

However, it is not just coastal home-owners who are suffering. Many Britons who bought homes inland face a similar fate. Bob Preston is one of about 12,000 expatriates who have discovered that their new homes were built illegally on agricultural land. The blight affects at least 4,000 properties in the Almanzora valley in AlmerÍa, southeast Spain. “I sold up to enjoy a quiet retirement here but the Spanish have stuffed me and thousands like me. We could lose our life savings and our homes, because most of us don’t legally own anything,” Preston says.

A commission of the European Parliament, led by the MEP Michael Cashman, visited the area in April in response to 15,000 petitions concerning alleged abuses of land laws in AlmerÍa and Valencia. Its report, which was sent to the Spanish Government, condemned the practices. But the commission cannot force a member state to mend its ways. “However, we can act if human rights, as set down in the European Convention are not being respected, as may be the case in respect of land grabs and the legal purchase of illegal builds,” Cashman says.

Preston, president of the pressure group Abusos UrbanÍsticos Almanzora No (AUAN), says that people started looking inland for property as houses on the coast became too expensive. Almanzora was in decline, and the newcomers were a golden opportunity that the local authority couldn’t pass up, so it allowed developers to build on farm land, saying that planning consent could be obtained retrospectively.

Solicitors told buyers that everything was fine, although it has emerged that some of the lawyers were also acting for the developers – a clear conflict of interest. Worse still, some of the properties were purchased using an extremely unusual form of contract under which the purchaser is also the promoter, in effect making them responsible for their fate. “British people believe that if you use a lawyer everything will be done legally,” Cashman says. “They don’t expect the legal system to fail them, but it has.”

Preston says: “In my case I don’t actually own either my land or my house – the developer does. But he can’t pass the ownership to me because the house is illegal. On the other hand, he does have my money. Service providers say, quite correctly, that it is illegal for them to supply illegal homes, and so one by one we pensioners, some of us in our late seventies, are forced to rely on expensive generators and water supplied by tanker.”

Whatever the local authority would like to do, its hands are tied by the Junta de AndalucÍa, the regional government, which will not countenance retrospective planning permission in this case, perhaps because it could lead to an avalanche of similar demands from thousands of owners of illegal houses on the Costa del Sol.

There is, perhaps, light at the end of the tunnel. AUAN has managed to form good relations with a number of local mayors and is working to develop more. Regular meetings are to be scheduled to keep the lines of communication open. Although there is as yet no clear solution, the regional governments of AndalucÍa and AlmerÍa are working on a plan to help to resolve the situation. What this will achieve, and when, is uncertain.

However, it is in no one’s interests to demolish the houses. As Spain is a country where expediency rules, a solution will eventually be found – although it won’t happen in a hurry.

FACT FILE

There are 100,000 illegal homes in Spain, including an estimated 30,000 in Marbella, according to official figures. Demolition orders have been imposed on two developments in Marbella – Banana Beach (334 homes) and Casablanca Beach (60 homes) – but neither order has been executed. House prices in Spain rose by 5.7 per cent this year, by 10.8 per cent last year and by 13.4 per cent in 2005. Abusos UrbanÍsticos Almanzora No: www.almanzora-au.org.

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