Work has resumed on the building of the pedestrian footbridge linking the village of Maro and the Nerja Caves as the saga continues.
The saga so far. The Nerja Caves Foundation, in conjunction with the Ministry of Public Works, began the construction of a 65 metre long footbride to connect the village of Maro with the Nerja Caves. After the project was underway, the Nerja Council put a stop to the building work on the grounds that it encroached upon an area of cultural interest and therefore permission was required from the Department of Culture before such work could be carried out.
Both the Nerja Caves Foundation and the Ministry of Public Works argued that, as the footbridge was part and parcel of the original highway construction plans, no permission was needed. They also accused the mayor of Nerja of ‘delaying tactics’ when it came to projects put forward by the Caves Foundation. The Nerja Council is PP controlled, the Caves Foundation is PSOE controlled by the way.
As it turns out, permission was indeed deemed to be necessary from the Department of Culture and, in a surprise to many, this permission was granted almost immediately. There was, purely coincidentally of course, an election coming up at the time.
However, after the granting of permission, the Nerja Council insisted that a municipal building license was necessary before any work could resume.
Now, the Ministry of Public Works has taken over the building of the footbridge and have restarted the works, apparently informing the Nerja Council by letter that they were going to do so and stating that no municipal building license is required on the grounds that they have permission from the Department of Culture and the footbridge is part of the original highways project.
The Nerja Council, on the other hand, has apparently warned the Ministry of Public Works that ‘steps will be taken’ if the works continue without a municipal building license. In addition, the Council is not happy that traffic is being diverted on a stretch of the N-340, a municipal road, without permission.
The Nerja Caves Foundation, who started the project, have expressed their ‘satifaction’ at the resumption of the works and state that, if there are no more delays, it could all be finished by the end of the year.
On that subject, it is probably a question of rearranging the words ‘chance’ and ‘fat’…..