GREENPEACE has threatened to take legal action and stage major protests if the Spanish government pushes through plans to relax coastal planning regulations. The environmental group is angry following comments by Spain’s Environment Minister Miguel Arias Canete promising to make the Coastal Law ‘more compatible with economic growth’. The proposals would make it easier for [...]

By Wendy Williams THEY have long feared that a mobile phone mast has been causing cancer in their village. Now the residents of Benajarafe have scored a massive victory by having it removed. After a two year battle, Vodafone has been ordered to take down the controversial transmitter. The locals are adamant that the mast, [...]

THE Canadian multinational CNWL OIL is set to begin prospecting for oil and gas off the coast of Nerja and Torrox. The surveys, which will last for approximately one month, will cover a marine area of 150,000 hectares. It comes after the controversial project, which has been in the pipeline since 2006, was licensed by [...]

SOLAR panel owners could soon be flogging the electricity they create to energy companies. Those connected to Endesa’s electricity supply whose panels absorb more energy than they use will be able to inject the surplus back into the grid – and later have its value deducted from their bill. “We are currently developing a way [...]

IS it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a brand new hybrid solar power station. The first of its kind in Spain, the AORA plant in Almeria uses an innovative energy generating system which uses less land and water while generating more usable power than any other solar energy system. AORA Solar is [...]

SPAIN’S new leader Mariano Rajoy will have the ultimate say in whether to allow the prospecting for gas off the Costa del Sol. While locally PP bosses insist drilling off Mijas would be a disasterous idea for tourism, Madrid’s environment department has already given it the go ahead. Now, Rajoy will have to decide if [...]

RAJOY’S new government has announced a €700 million nuclear waste dump for a village near Madrid, provoking mixed reaction from residents and green groups. The dump, to be built in the small town of Villar de Canas, is expected to create 300 new jobs – an obvious blessing for its residents given Spain’s current 21 [...]

A FORMER Ronda mayor has pleaded for a rethink on a freight train plan that would ruin the town’s key tourist valley. Manuel Garcia Rubio insists the so-called Mediterranean Corridor should not be carved through the ‘magnificent’ Llano de la Cruz valley. The former socialist mayor insists the area – that has half a dozen [...]

EXPERTS are assessing what the invasion of a ‘huge and ferocious’ fish could mean for Andalucia’s fragile ecosystem. Electric barriers may be used to stop catfish leaving the Iznajar reservoir near Cordoba, where a 50cm specimen was caught earlier this year. A working group has been held in Sevilla to discuss ways of stopping the [...]

THE mayors of Ronda and Arriate are supporting a plan to protect Ronda’s beautiful Llano de la Cruz valley against a damaging railway freight scheme. Both have also asked for a month’s extension to give residents and businesses time to formulate their allegations against the project, that is part of the so-called Mediterranean Corridor. Under [...]

UP to 200 homeowners and hoteliers have met to discuss ways to oppose a scheme that would ‘destroy’ tourism in Ronda’s popular Llano de la Cruz valley. The group – who are setting up a platform against the project – heard how a planned rail link would primarily be for freight trains, which ‘could run [...]

DRIVERS are failing to demonstrate their green credentials after it emerged sales of eco-friendly cars flopped in the first nine months of the year. Only 8,000 hybrid cars – which run on both petrol and electric – were sold nationally between January and September, less than half the government’s target of 20,000. Andalucia saw the [...]