Costa de Almería
Expats protest retirement home demolition in Vera
By m.p.
Jan 28, 2008 - 6:33 PM

Hundreds of people turned out in Vera on Sunday to a protest organised outside the Town Hall against the recent demolition of the house owned by Len and Helen Prior in the area of La Loma, in Vera. The British couple’s retirement home was brought down on a court order which ruled it to be illegal for being built on rustic land, and it’s understood they are now living in a caravan on the site where their house once stood.

Speaking at the protest on Sunday, Vera’s planning councillor, Francisco Vázquez, said the Prior’s building licence was legally granted, and the couple ‘had not committed any crime.’
The councillor noted five other property owners in La Loma who are in the same situation and who have appeals pending with the Andalucía High Court of Justice against similar decisions.

The protest was organised by the party Ciudadanos Europeos por Mojácar. Their president, Lenox Napier, told Ideal newspaper of the expat community’s concerns that many more houses considered as illegal could be demolished in the province: the figure could be as much as 1,000, he said.