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It looks like walkers taking in the views from Cabo Roig’s panoramic cliff walk will spend another summer detouring around the blocked-off pedestrian path in front of the Bellavista II residential complex.

 

The homeowners have exhausted all their appeals and last week, Orihuela City Council summoned the residents to its Playa Flamenca headquarters to present them with a check for €26,180 – an amount deemed fair for the expropriation of the short stretch of path in front of their houses. However, the residents refused to sign their acceptance of the offer and the matter has gone back to the courts for advice on how to proceed.

 

The saga has been dragging on for years. Residents are understandably annoyed that hundreds of walkers flood past their front gates every day, and this short portion of the popular cliff walk, which runs between Aguamarina and La Caleta beach, has been closed off since 2021, when a court ruling forced the City Council to block it up so it could become a private access for Bellavista homeowners.

 

However, it was finally decided in April that the cliff path would be reopened once and for all, and the residents would be paid for the inconvenience. The hope was that the wall would be demolished in time for summer.

 

Meanwhile, the City Council has budgeted €38,305 to demolish the entrance walls at each end of the path, pave the road and install street lighting, with a two-month deadline for completion. Whenever they finally get access, that is.

 

The council has asked the courts to give them the green light to tear down the wall but for the moment, visitors and locals will have to continue making the two-kilometre detour to avoid a stretch barely 60 metres long.

 

 

Image: Archive