“The privatization that the island is suffering is very strong. The coast belongs to no one.” She is one of the hikers who has tried to access the Cala Llentrisca (Sant Josep) area of Eivissa and who, to do so, has had to confront the security guard of a private urbanization located in this High Level Natural Area of Special Interest of Protection (AANP). When their group arrived at the security checkpoint and saw the access control barrier, they could not believe that an area where they had been many times before with the intention of enjoying the surroundings was now privatized by only a few.
After passing es Cubells, a small town next to a cliff area in the municipality of Sant Josep, and after driving for a few moments along the es Vedrà i es Vedranell road, victim of several landslides that require careful driving, they arrived where the vigilant. Then, the worker at a luxury housing complex located on the coast explained to them that, if they did not live in the urbanization, they could not pass, as one of the hikers, a resident of the island, told elDiario.es.
The group of hikers explained to the guard, hired by a private company, that they had previously accessed the area to go hiking and go to the beach. It is one of the natural areas of the island declared of special interest by Law 1/1991, of January 30, on natural spaces and urban planning regime for areas of special protection. But the guard refused to let them pass. After several arguments from both of them, the hikers asked him to call their boss or the Sant Josep Local Police so that they could corroborate the legality of their prohibition of passage, but the guard also refused.
After the tone of the conversation increased, the group decided to notify the municipality’s security force. “Evidently, from the police station they told us that this was illegal and that they had the obligation to let us pass,” one of the hikers told elDiario.es. Furthermore, once the call was established, they handed the cell phone to the security guard in case he wanted to offer his version of the events to the agents, an option that he rejected, according to the hikers. “We were aware of our right, but there will be many people who turned around when they reached the barrier,” considers a member of this group.
Public spaces and private interests
The Local Police of Sant Josep, consulted by elDiario.es, is aware that the security guard hired by the private urbanization takes note of the license plate of all hikers and walkers, in principle, “for informational purposes only.” However, the agent who assisted the hikers by phone after the fight assured them that they were not required to provide this information, according to the hikers.
The security guard takes note of the license plate of all vehicles, although hikers are not required to provide this information. ‘They cannot deny that any citizen passes,’ the Police state categorically.
Sources from the police force add that they have no evidence that, throughout all these years (at least two decades) in which the sentry box has been installed, they have received “any complaint or complaint calls from any neighbor or tourist”. Neither the sentry box on es Vedrà i es Vedranell street nor the one that controls access to the Vistalegre luxury villa development, located a little further north in the same protected area.
“We already understand that there are urbanizations around and I don’t know if there have been robberies, but not being able to go to the beach from a coastal road is amazing and seems very unfair to us,” laments one of those affected. The plot on which the construction is located to guarantee the security of the housing complex is a private plot of a rustic nature, according to data from the cadastre registry and information provided by the Sant Josep City Council to elDiario.es.
“Just because it is a natural area does not mean that it cannot contain private property,” says Inmaculada Yañez, a lawyer specializing in Coastal Law. What it does have to do with is the coastal limit and the maritime-terrestrial public domain. In this case, the sentry box is several meters outside both the protection easement and outside the transit easement space, a strip six meters wide inland from the boundary line.
The construction of any facility is not authorized in this area and it must be left permanently open for public pedestrian use and for surveillance and rescue vehicles. The Police have reiterated, however, that even if the area is not public domain, “no one can be prohibited from accessing it.” “They cannot deny that any citizen passes,” police sources firmly state.
The ownership of the land that houses the security booth predates the status of a protected area by Law 1/1991, of January 30, on natural spaces and the urban planning regime of the special protection areas of the Balearic Islands, confirm the same sources of the Consistory. Right next door is the Cala d’Hort Natural Park, Cap Llentrisca i sa Talaia, declared a natural area protected by Royal Decree 24/2002, of February 15 during the first term of socialist president Francesc Antich (1999-2003). ). It was the same Royal Decree that declared the islets of es Vedrà and es Vedranell and the islets of Ponent as natural reserves.
“Depending on the natural area, the right to private property will change, but in Spain there are areas that belong to the Natura 2000 Network and have private industries and ports because perhaps it was already a private area before they made it a Natural Park. Even within the demarcation line there may be properties because there has been a concession or for the same reason, because they were there before the legislation was legislated,” explains Yañez.
The tycoon who prohibits bathers from entering
The attempted privatization of natural spaces on the island dates back decades and has been the order of the day since then with shameless frequency. In the 1960s, the German industry billionaire Siegfried Otto, buried today in the Sant Joan cemetery, already tried actively and passively to close es Canaret to bathers.
Above the waters of this secluded northern beach rise the walls of the castle-like mansion that the magnate built after buying the land from the children of a pages. Last September, the Ministry of the Sea and the Water Cycle of the Government opened an investigation to assess the opening of a sanctioning file for preventing passage through an area of public domain, as published Ibiza Diary.
The current owners of the ostentatious home have also tried to prevent bathers from reaching the beach (whose land access is practically blocked) with ‘private property’ signs or through warnings to visitors by gardeners and staff. of farm maintenance.
The local media also reported the irregularities committed by the owners of some villas located in Caló d’en Real (Sant Josep) for occupying the traffic easement area, the closest to the coast and where the construction of any is not authorized. installation, as stipulated in title II of the Coastal Law. The owners of these mansions undertook to carry out works to make the passage free again after technicians from the Sant Josep City Council carried out an inspection after the illegalities became public.
The privatization of spaces is not always done, however, behind the administration’s back. In September 2023, the PSOE of Sant Antoni (in opposition) denounced the closure of Cala Gracioneta, with the municipal permission of the Popular Party government team, for the celebration of a private event by electronic music DJs Keinemusik . The same German record label that was the headliner at the closing of last season at the Hï nightclub.
The City Council, highly criticized by the socialist party, hid behind charitable purposes for the Association of People with Special Needs of Ibiza and Formentera (Apneef) in order to justify the privatization of the beach. Although the Popular Party denied, in its version of the events, the claim that residents and tourists had been prevented from passing, eyewitnesses confirmed the opposite at the time. The capacity exceeded 400 people in the natural enclave, which was very small in size. The institution also authorized exceeding the maximum decibels set by the municipality’s noise ordinance, citing the “general interest” of the party.
#owners #luxury #houses #security #guard #prohibit #access #protected #cove #Ibiza
