The Contentious-Administrative Court Nº1 of Almeria, has ruled in favour of the Town Council of Arboleas who on 31 January 2020 filed through the lawyer Alfredo Najas, a contentious-administrative appeal against the Agreement of the Plenary of the Town Council of Cantoria of 20 December 2019 by which the project of urban development for the expansion of intensive pig farm for 670 heads of fattening in regime of integration in the Paraje El Plantío of the municipality of Cantoria was approved.
A dispute that is undoubtedly exceptional as it involves two town councils and in this case of the same political colour (PSOE), following a complaint that is generally brought by the affected neighbours themselves.
Najas, in defence of the Town Council of Arboleas, -whose municipal district is adjacent to that of Cantoria, specifically refers to the neighbourhood known as Los Llanos de Arboleas-, lodged an appeal as there was no reasoning whatsoever regarding the public utility or social interest of the extension of the pig farm, arguing that the Plenary Agreement carried out by the Town Council of Cantoria would be in breach of the minimum legal distance that must exist between a pig farm and in this case the urban centre of Los Llanos.
For this reason – the pig farm is located less than 1000 metres from the village of Los Llanos de Arboleas – the magistrate Andrés Salas Felipe declared the project for the extension of a pig farm null and void.
«In view of the administrative file and the documentation in the proceedings, the plaintiff’s claim must be upheld, and the aforementioned precept 5 Dos A 1 a) must be considered to have been infringed, given the distance of less than 1 km. from the centre of Los Llanos, without the exemption of art. 7.7 of the location requirements for the holding to be registered in the State register of pig holdings, since the number of authorised head of pigs which is being increased together with the existing number of pigs by means of the extension exceeds the volume limits laid down in Article 3(B)».
This is not the first time that macro-farms in the Almanzora and Levante areas have caused clashes. In the municipality of Cantoria in December 2022, hundreds of neighbours demonstrated against the proliferation of pig farms that generate bad smells, health alerts, devalue the value of properties and do not generate jobs as the whole system is mechanised.