The beach for dogs that the Calonge and Platja d’Aro town councils announced with great fanfare at the beginning of Easter has no effect. Pets can no longer enjoy the sand or its waters due to various errors in the processing of the two councils. A victory for the residents of the two nearby housing estates who formed a coordinator, Amics de la Belladona, because they considered that the beach was “illegal” as it contravened the municipal ordinances, which prohibit the access of dogs to the beaches of the two municipalities. They also considered that there were other possible locations “more suitable” for this type of beach, much more accessible to people and animals, and they regretted that what they described as “the last virgin cove of certain dimensions of the Baix Empordà “.
But the fact that Cala Belladona has been a dog beach for only the blink of an eye has nothing to do with the supposed ecological value that the neighbors opposed to the cove also argued, but because of the poor administrative processing that have carried out the two councils in which it was going to be located. The first mistake was made by Calonge, who forgot to include in his plan of uses for the season the document that indicates which activities will be on his sands, the footage that the dog beach would occupy in his municipality.
During the press conference held by political leaders at the beginning of April, it was announced that the entire cove would have this purpose, approximately 2,500 square meters, of which 20% (about 679 meters) belong to Platja d’ Aro and the rest, in Calonge. But Calonge only asked Costes de la Generalitat, in charge of authorizing the new uses that the beaches will have in each new season, for permission to place an information poster, which specifically occupied one square meter. They forgot to state in the document the meters reserved for the dogs. A mistake they managed to correct quickly. But in the rectification of the use plan, Calonge no longer claimed that the entire cove was dog-friendly, but only 300 meters from its municipal term. “This distorted the initial idea”, affirm Platja d’Aro sources.
There are more. The two municipalities thought that the use plan was sufficient and that it prevailed over their respective municipal ordinances, which in both cases expressly prohibited the presence of dogs on their beaches. The beach use ordinance of Castell-Platja d’Aro and S’Agaró specifies in its article 25 that “the bathing of domestic animals in the sea is prohibited, as well as the circulation or permanence of animals on the beaches” . The municipal ordinance of the Police and Good Government of Calonge, in its article 15, also states that the access and presence of dogs is prohibited on its beaches.
Such was the confidence of the Consistory that things were being done well, that even the mayor of Platja d’Aro signed a mayoral decree in which he asked that, as long as the ordinance for the use of beaches and the control and possession of animals, the presence of dogs on the beach would not be reported. The situation generated completely anomalous situations: the Police, with the municipal ordinance in hand, had to fine anyone walking with dogs on the sand, but a mayor’s decree indicated the opposite.
Finally, the two councils, when they saw that they did not have enough time to modify their respective municipal ordinances before the summer and allow the presence of dogs in this cove, have decided to backtrack. With the busy month of June, the times for the modification were very “fair”, according to the two town councils. It will be the future municipal governments who will decide whether or not they want Cala Belladona to end up being a beach for dogs in the future.
The case does not end here. The opponents of the cove have filed a complaint against the Mossos d’Esquadra because they consider that the Platja d’Aro City Council may have committed a crime of administrative misconduct.
