Rumpus continues over dog beach
Area will have to be closed for four months of the year due to protection status
TORREVIEJA town hall’s decision to close two dog beaches set up by the previous council and create a new area at a rocky cove in the south of the municipality is continuing to cause controversy.
Local political parties and associations have slammed the decision, which they claim was taken ‘unilaterally’ and without consulting residents and pet owners.
This week the Sueña Torrevieja party stated that they had found ‘the small print’ in the measure, which was announced by the Partido Popular (PP) council last month.
Spokesman Pablo Samper noted that the decree states that Cala del Rocío is in a protected area and the ‘presence of dogs should be prohibited from March 1 to June 30 each year’.
They claimed this had been kept hidden from the public and opposition councillors.
Sr Samper lamented that the PP council had done away with two dog beaches which had already been established – at Cala del Moro and Punta Margalla – and set up their own in an isolated area which could only be used for some of the year.
The closure period would include Easter and the first month stated.
“This leaves dog owners in a much worse situation than they were in before,” he added.
A town hall spokesman answered by claiming that Sr Samper had ‘put his foot in it’.
He noted that Cala del Moro was covered by the same protection legislation as Cala del Rocío and would therefore have had to be closed during the same period.
He added that residents had not been informed about this restriction at the time.
The spokesman noted that they are ‘working to ensure that the dog beach can be kept of the summer, he open all year round so that dogs and their owners can enjoy the area with all the safety guarantees’.
‘Confusion and annoyance’
The Salvemos Lo Ferrís association in Torrevieja has asked the town hall to ‘rectify’ its decision over Cala del Rocío.
They noted that the move had caused ‘confusion and annoyance’ for regular users of the area and claimed it would cause ‘conflict’ during the summer.
According to the association, the two beaches allocated by the previous council had been chosen ‘after three years of consultation’.
However, these have now been scrapped ‘unilaterally’ and the new area brought in without consulting residents.