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The building moratorium on the Mar Menor will expire on Thursday August 3 as the local government has failed to extend the ban on construction around the lagoon. A last-ditch effort was made by the socialist party PSOE to convene the deputies before they go on summer vacation but PP and VOX, who are still slogging it out to form a new regional government in Murcia, voted against it.

 

Dozens of protestors have gathered outside the Murcia Parliament, demanding that the building ban remain in place to protect the delicate ecosystem but with little else to be done, developers can essentially begin submitting plans to construct property in the area from this Thursday.

 

Environmentalists had asked that the ban be left in place until the Territorial Planning Plan for the Vertiente del Mar Menor Basin is finally approved, but this itself has suffered countless delays. It’s understood that the Ministry of Development has reviewed the document, which among other things will regulate urban development in the Campo de Cartagena, but when it will come into force is anyone’s guess.

 

PP spokesperson Joaquín Segado has promised that, once parliamentary activity resumes after the holidays, his party will propose a modification to the current law. “We do not reject extending the moratorium,” he stressed.

 

He certainly doesn’t foresee a huge boom in interest in building macro-developments around the lagoon once the ban is lifted: "What would be allowed would be that some urban development actions that were subject to the moratorium could advance. But that is a matter that depends on the city councils,” he said.

 

Unsurprisingly, the PSOE has accused its rival political party of having no interest in “protecting the Mar Menor” and has described the PP’s excuses for allowing the building ban to expire as “crude”.

 

"What they have done today has been to continue advancing in this lack of protection of the Mar Menor,” spokesperson José Vélez concluded.

 

 

Image: @murciarmediterr / Twitter