Nothing ever seems to go smoothly between the PSOE-led Nerja Caves Foundation and the PP-led Nerja Council. First it was seemingly endless delays and obstructions to the proposed Caves Museum, now it’s the proposed footbridge over the highway.
The Nerja Council is now applying for permission from the Ministry of Public Works and the Provincial Department of Culture for the project to construct an access bridge over the highway. The bridge is to be 65 metres long and 3 metres wide, connecting Maro with the Nerja Caves.
Ángel Ramírez, the current manager of the Nerja Caves, believes this to be another chapter in a series of attempts by the Council to delay important projects and does not believe that a license is necessary for a project of this calibre as it is on land expropriated for the construction of the highway.
The Council is also pointing out to the Department of Culture that the project affects a pipe on ‘protected’ land and therefore needs both a building license and a permit from the Cultural Department. Ramírez admits that the bridge is, at least partly, on protected land and that the planning laws are, to say the least, complex, but still believes that no permit is necessary as the project was included in the original highway plans.
The saga will no doubt now rumble on and one would doubt very much that a bridge will appear in the short-term!!
Interestingly, or not as the case may be, as with the museum project, work had already actually started before the (new) requirements came to light.