site.bta Go-ahead for Controversial Construction of Holiday Village in Seaside Irakli Area, Part of Natura Nature Conservation Network

Go-ahead for Controversial Construction of Holiday  Village in Seaside Irakli Area, Part of Natura
Nature Conservation Network

Sofia, May 4 (BTA) - Construction works for a holiday village
with a club and pool at the Irakli beach can continue, according
 to information published by the Regional Development and Public
 Works Ministry, saying that the relevant construction permits
are valid since more than a year now, despite their revocation
in 2013 by virtue of orders of the Regional Directorate for
National Construction Supervision in Bourgas, on the Black Sea.
The Regional Development and Public Works Ministry said it
published information on the case after an alert that the
construction works at Irakli had been resumed.

Back in 2010 a steering group under the name Let's Save Irakli
warned that projects for bungalows accommodating 500 were a
threat to the Irakli area on the Black Sea, which is part of the
 Natura EU-wide nature conservation network. Environmental NGOs
and civil groups staged protests against the fact that the State
 has not taken any action to protect dunes and beaches at 
the pristine beaches - Irakli, Shkorpilovtsi, Pasha Dere, Shabla
 - Krapets and others.

The Regional Development and Public Works Ministry said Monday
that as the construction works are Category 5, the supervision
of them does not rest with the Ministry but with the Nessebur
Municipality, where the site is located.

The Ministry said that the construction works in two land lots
were halted by orders of the Bourgas construction supervision
directorate after alerts by members of the public in the early
2013. The orders were subsequently appealed and declared invalid
 by the Bourgas Administrative Court on the grounds that, as per
 conclusions of expert witnesses, the construction works were
Category 5 and thus the municipality, and not the construction
supervision service, was responsible for their supervision and
suspension.

Two more appeal procedures were conducted on the matter, both of
 which ended in favour of the investor in the project, Emona
2000, so that the construction permits entered force at the end
of 2013 and the beginning of 2014. Now, only the Nessebur
Municipality is entitled to exercise control over them, the
Regional Development and Public Works Ministry said.