News- Port issue - Letter to Brussels

June 3rd 2008. Participants of Jávea's Agenda21 Citizen's forum unanimously agreed the text of a letter which rejected the Port expansion scheme. This letter will be sent to ministries and political parties in Spain, as well as NGOs and the European Parliament in Brussels. Meanwhile the Authority for Coastal development continues to promote the project

Overwhelming support for Rejection

At the previous meeting, all the statements that had been agreed by the Forum over the past four years relating to Port expansion had been listed. Apart from one individual person, the resolutions had been in favour of conserving the coastline in its entirely and against port expansion.

People at the meeting had also added that any proposed expansion would mean that many people and the town as a whole would lose out and there were few obvious benefits. More than a hundred people, representing all sectors of society had attended that meeting and nobody spoke out in favour of the proposal from the Ministry. In the final vote, there had been unanimity in rejecting any expansion of Xàbia port harbour. Click here for a translation of the letter.

Costas continue to promote project

Meanwhile there was an announcement by the authorities governing coastal development (Costas) that they will continue to promote the expansion of Javea's port, despite local rejection of such ideas. This rejection included environmental and aesthetic factors, including damage to the protected ( by the Environment Ministry) sea-grass beds (Posodonia). These are valuable breeding nurseries for local fish and thus future stocks for the local fishing folk.

Announcement to protect Marine Reserve

Ironically, on Friday 6th June there was an announcement by representatives of the Ministry of the Environment that the Marine Nature Reserve around Cabo de San Antonio including the Tango beach (and thus the sea-grass beds) will be further protected by new buoys. These will be located so that they do not damage the sea-grass. They will provide marine friendly anchoring points for visiting boats, with warning notices telling people not to drop their own anchors nor fish within the Reserve.

The Costa's scheme for Javea would involve dumping several thousands of tons of heavy rocks onto some of these sea-grass beds to create a new quay.

For a description of the Port expansion scheme see: Ministry proposal for Port expansion

For a full account of the previous meeting see:Agenda 21 unanimously rejects Port expansion

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