The High Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJCV) has thrown out an appeal by a group of people who live in a housing development in Orihuela against the reopening of the seafront promenade between La Caleta and Cabo Roig to the public on August 20th. The Orihuela City Council did this. The result affirms the decision made by the Administrative Court of Elche in the first instance. More crucially, it verifies the modifications that the City Council still needs to do now that the promenade has reopened.
The complaint was over the project that the City Council approved to build a 30-meter-long pedestrian bridge that connects two existing coastal promenades in the area. The bridge is already open for business.
Work still to be done
The work, which costs 57,867 euros, includes partially tearing down the enclosures (which has already been done with the first ruling’s approval) and making the space more accessible for people with limited mobility by building ramps at the north and south entrances to the area that are open to foot traffic (wheelchairs and mobility vehicles can’t go through this section). It also includes putting up protective barriers on the cliff’s slopes on its seafront and taking down the lighting on the promenade.
Sources inside the governing team said on Wednesday that all of these projects are still waiting for bids and awards. The residents’ association and the company that were harmed by the land expropriation appealed the Elche court’s decision from May 2025. However, the City Council chose to carry out the punishment without waiting for the appeal’s verdict, which happened at the end of November. The municipality had not said before that the decision had been appealed.
The plaintiffs said that the municipality didn’t have the right to do the work since it would be done on land that was subject to easements for transit and protection under the Coastal Law. They also criticised the lack of a clear declaration of public utility, which is needed to take the affected land, and called the municipal action an “arbitrary act”.
All permissions
But the supreme court has turned down all of these arguments. The Administrative Court says that the City Council has the legal right to approve this municipal works project. This is especially true since the project has the necessary approvals from both the Provincial Coastal Service of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Directorate General of Ports, Airports, and Coasts of the Valencian Regional Government.
Public service
The court says that the declaration of public utility is “understood to be implicit in the approval of the municipal works project,” as stated in Article 10 of the Law on Compulsory Purchase. The court’s decision makes it clear that the goal of the project is not to build a new promenade but to “reopen to the public a pre-existing promenade that had been open de facto to the public for many years,” thereby guaranteeing a pedestrian right of way established by law.
The TSJCV also disagrees with the term “de facto action” because there is a full administrative process with the right notifications and hearings for all interested parties, including the public information process that was published in the Official Gazette of the Province of Alicante.
The council said that the verdict allows the municipal project to proceed with the work, which would restore a public space and make it easier for people to walk along the Orihuela shoreline.
Author: Derek Appleton
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