President of the Junta de Andalucía, José Antonio Griñán, told Europa Press on Thursday that he had not received ‘any notification or letter’ from the British Ambassador to Spain, Giles Paxman, regarding the demolition of nine British owned properties in Albox, Almería.British diplomats are insisting that Ambassador Paxman has written and sent a fax asking for a meeting to try and find a solution to the problem, but speaking to journalists in Córdoba, José Antonio Griñán, said that the building licences for the properties had already been contested by the Junta at the time as not being considered as legal. He insisted that the Junta had therefore met its obligations regarding the matter, and that the properties were illegal.
However also speaking on Thursday the Junta’s Councillor for Housing, Juan Espadas, made a call for calm from the nine property owners. He said that his department would be looking at the matter ‘case by case’. He said that problem had arisen because of the ‘speculative interests of professional defrauders’ who had attracted foreign investors by offering the chance of building on non-buildable land without explaining exactly what any problems could be.Espadas also expressed his wish to halt the disordered growth and said leaving the new town plans aside he would be working with the Town Halls in the districts of the Almanzora in Almería and Axarquia in Málaga with the objective of imposing urban discipline.‘The Junta de Andalucía does not knock down buildings, but challenges licences it considers to be illegal, and it is the judge who then decides’, he said.