In August 2020, responding to the request of a consumer association that warned of the poor state of the waters, the Alicante City Council installed signs on the beach of San Gabriel, a neighborhood located in the south of the city, prohibiting bathing in the area.

The small sandy area, adjacent to the fishing dock of the port of Alicante, is not recognized as a beach by the municipality, which deprives its users, numerous especially in summer, of the services, cleanliness and presence of lifeguards that exist in the “official” beaches.

The Gran Vía Sur Puerto Neighborhood Association, which has been demanding the aforementioned facilities for many years, filed a lawsuit in July 2021 in the Court against that decision, in which they requested the removal of the signage that prohibited bathing “without justified cause.” and the cessation of the City Council’s refusal to fully recognize the urban beach of San Gabriel.” The Administrative Litigation Court No. 2 of Alicante ruled in his favor and the Superior Court of Justice has rejected the appeal filed by the council, which it also ordered to pay costs.

In the ruling that the TSJ now ratifies, it was warned that “the Alicante City Council has not followed any procedure nor has it applied any specific regulatory provision to make the decision to place a sign prohibiting bathing on San Gabriel beach.” If the City Council understands that the beach has to be classified as prohibited use, the ruling adds, “it must implement the legally established procedure.”

Upon learning of the ruling, the spokespersons for the neighborhood association consider that it has been demonstrated that “the arguments put forward by the City Council to justify its actions and its refusal to treat San Gabriel beach as just another beach in the city lack any logic.” and motivation, as the Courts have considered, given that no procedure was followed, no regulations were applied and no technical report was provided.”

They remember that, in his ruling, the judge rejected the arguments of the Consistory about the presence of certain “peculiarities” that would recommend that the beach not be used: the railway line, the discharges from the treatment plant and existence in the vicinity of an exit ravine. of rainwater.

On the one hand, there is a pedestrian walkway over the roads that guarantees the safety and accessibility of bathers. The City Council itself says in its response to the lawsuit that the discharges from the Rincón de León WWTP are not polluting, and with respect to the Barranco de Las Ovejas “is not a problem either, as there are many other beaches where certain ravines flow when torrential or copious rain occurs, such as Albufereta beach in Alicante or Cala de la Granadella in the municipality of Xàbia.”

On the other hand, and as a fundamental issue in the opinion of the neighbors, the judge determines that “San Gabriel Beach is included in Decree 58/2018, of May 4 of the Consell, which approves the PATIVEL and the Catalog of Beaches, providing the San Gabriel beach with an identification and recognition token in section 174 with the “Urban 1” beach category (without restrictions).

For this reason, the association demands that Mayor Luis Barcala proceed, before the deadline of March 20, 2024 established by the regulations, with the inclusion in the Census of beaches of the Valencian Community of San Gabriel beach, along with the rest of the urban beaches of Alicante, so that controls and analyzes can be carried out to guarantee the quality of the bathing waters, thus rectifying the refusal maintained in recent years.

Secondly, they request that the necessary sanitation facilities and correct purification of urban and industrial wastewater be carried out, “thus avoiding the pollution and chronic degradation that this beach and the entire coastline of the city has suffered and continues to suffer.”

Neighborhood spokespersons consider that the refusal to recognize San Gabriel beach could be related to the municipal lack of interest in improving the quality of the water from the treatment plant, whose poor quality would be demonstrated by “public reports issued by the University of Alicante, the Institute of Coastal Ecology, the Valencian Service for the Protection of Fishing Resources, the Port Authority of Alicante and MITECO”.

Finally, they demand that San Gabriel beach be taken into account in the planning and execution for the next bathing season of the equipment, provisions and services established by the Municipal Beach Ordinance of the Alicante City Council itself in matters of security, surveillance, cleanliness, services and water quality.