What is the Proposed Project?
Altos de Canillas, a private company based in Velez-Malaga created a proposal to build a waste recycling plant and two landfills – one enormous one would literally fill the valleys leading up to the beautiful Andalucían pueblo blanco (white village) of Canillas de Aceituno. See the full proposal here.
Access to the proposed plant is via narrow winding roads with tight, blind corners with houses very close to the road. The danger of huge waste trucks on these roads poses a real safety hazard to the many cyclists and tourists who visit the area, not to mention the locals who need to use the roads daily. See more about road safety issues here.
They propose to make a visitor centre at the plant inviting school children. Large buses carrying people to the visitor centre add to the significant danger on these roads. The project proposal does not discuss the roads and the dangers and seems to not have been considered.
There is minimal information or investigation about the environmental impact on the water courses and nature surrounding the proposed area. We all enjoy the migrating birds swarming through these valleys and watch as the eagles living on La Maroma swoop and hunt there.
The landfill will collect waste that can not be recycled from the plant and essentially be an unmanaged dumping ground. Our hamlets and homes in the valleys below Canillas de Aceituno would be severely impacted by this project as would the tourist industry growing year on year. The largest landfill is planned for the valleys alongside the main road up to the village – who wants to visit this beautiful place and be faced with an enormous landfill? See more about our beautiful village.
Roads have already been built throughout the planned area, without, we are told by the town council, planning permission.
There was no public announcement, no public engagement, no extensive environmental impact study. Our mayor claimed no knowledge of the planned project but, we discovered, had actually signed papers relating to the project back in 2019. The mayor claims to have denounced the building of the roads illegally, but we as yet have seen no evidence of this.
Our community quickly united in outrage when news spread of the proposal and we had only three weeks to protest with the Junta de Andalucía. See more about our achievements so far, here.
Despite lack of cooperation, lack of transparency and lack of support from the town council of Canillas de Aceituno, our community gathered close to 1400 signatures protesting the project. We await the decision from the Junta de Andalucía…