Pressure groups win case

It looks like the scheme to build the CV-95 motorway from Torrevieja to Orihuela through San Miguel de Salinas is going to fail.

The ecologist association La Vega Baja no se Vende and the residents' association from San Miguel de Salinas 'San Miguel Arcángel' had presented a formal complaint to the Regional High Court in 2007. According to the sentence passed by the court, the regional government has to re-start the whole process if they want the motorway to be built, as several irregularities have occurred. 

One of these was that the environmental impact study was presented in March 2007, even though the scheme was approved in July 2006. The scheme included three alternative routes for the road but only one study was carried out - and this was for the route proposed by the regional government.

According to the pressure groups, "Building three new motorways in the Vega Baja - the CV-95, the CV-91 from Guardamar to Orihuela and AP-37 - is not environmentally sustainable and would destroy the countryside and fields."

The news  about the CV-95 comes on the back of the announcement in May by the regional director for public works Ismael Ferrer that the project had been hit by the credit crunch.  He reported that the designated contractors were unable to borrow the 94.4 million Euros they needed from the banks to build the motorway.

The pressure groups suggest that the existing road should be turned into a dual carriageway and the toll on the AP-7 motorway in La Zenia should be lifted.