Calpe town hall wins land grab case

THE SUPERIOR Court of Justice (TSJ) has ruled that Calpe council has to pay €116,280 for the expropriation of land located in the Ràfol area, compared to the €2.3 million that the owners asked for.

The TSJ considered that the land under dispute was rustic, as stated by the town hall, rather than urban, as the owner argued.

The mayoress of Calpe, Ana Sala, described the ruling as 'very positive' for the municipal coffers. “This judgement is a great satisfaction for me. We have defended the municipal interest. We have saved more than two million euros”, she pointed out.

The land, measuring 15,500 sqm, is already municipal property. This must be used for infrastructure, as established in the ruling.

It puts an end to more than 10 years of judicial litigation between the council and the owners which began in 2009, when they denounced the town hall for having occupied their land illegally, and for which the council was ordered to pay almost a million euros.

From that moment, the council began an expropriation process in which each party set a different value for the land. The council valued it at

€53,000, while the owners valued it at €2,900,000.

The Provincial Expropriation Jury ruled that the value of the land stood at €95,000, which, together with interest, amounted to €121,000. However, as the owners were not satisfied with the decision, they appealed, lowering their request to €2,300,000.

The TSJ is ruling that neither party was right, although it set the amount of the expropriation at €116,280, to which interest will be added. The council therefore will only have to pay an additional €21,000, as the difference has already paid to the owners of the land.