Playa Honda-Villas Caravaning cycle path delayed due to technicality
Questions over the ownership of land near the Mar Menor means that the planned walkway and cycle path will not be completed this summer
Work to create a new cycle and pedestrian path to join Playa Honda and Villas Caravaning near the southern edge of the Mar Menor was due to begin “in the first quarter of 2024”, as stated by Cartagena City Council at the end of last year, but that has failed to materialise due to an issue with planning permission.
The much-trumpeted eco-friendly path will not even be finished this summer, according to fresh reports from the council.
The problem is that there are doubts about who owns one of the plots of land through which the route is supposed to pass.
This uncertainty has prompted the City Council to ask the Directorate General for Natural Heritage and Climate Action to state whether there is any impediment to the start of the work or whether it will be necessary to adopt any extra measures, such as expropriating the land.
Cartagena’s Councillor for Tourism, Beatriz Sánchez del Álamo, explained that the construction contract for the cycle path was formalised on February 27, 2024. However, before work could start, the technical services warned of the possibility that it would run through a different plot of land owned by the municipality or would be affected by some form of protection.
While acknowledging that she would like the work to be started and completed as soon as possible, Councillor Sánchez was quick to temper people’s expectations: “Is it going to be done? Yes. Before the summer? Well, no.”
The Council has stated that the area is in a very deteriorated state, with people fly tipping there and ground that is bumpy and prone to flooding. As such, it is hard to walk there safely, something which they plan to change with the new pedestrian and cycle path.
Eventually, the work will consist of building a coastal walkway for people on foot and for bicycles using environmentally friendly materials and construction systems.
Image: Felipe G. Pagán/Ayuntamiento de Cartagena
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