NOT GUILTY

THE mayor of Nerja, José Al‐berto Armijo, has been ac‐quitted in the case of the Rio de La Miel dump.

Since 2017, he has been adamant in declaring that as far as his political behaviour, as well as that of other pub‐lic officials, and businesses could “in no way be consid‐ered criminal conduct, and therefore there would be no criminal reproach, as it was demonstrated that at no time was there contamina‐tion or risk of serious danger to the environment.”

He is delighted with this ruling and following the de‐cision said that the council’s intention “was always to re‐store the quarry abandoned by the socialist Junta de An‐dalucia, which allowed the operator to leave without restoring it.”

It was always his con ‐tention that the Consistory complied with the contents of the Provincial Director Plan for Construction Waste of the Malaga Provincial Council of 2001, which rec‐ommended that said con‐struction materials be taken to quarries without cleaning.

In addition, he was confi‐dent that the regulations of

MORE than €2 million has been granted by the Spanish government to support beekeeping in Andalucia and some of that has found its way to Axarquia.

The plight of the bee, attacked by foreign invaders as well as pesticide is well recorded and the impor ‐tance of this hard ‐ working insect cannot be undervalued both from an economic and environmental point of view.

The number of beekeepers across the whole of Andalucia is not enor‐mous with around 4,200 commer ‐cial farms, but manages to con ‐tribute around €33 million each year to the economy.

The Axarquia white town of Col ‐menar boasts a fine Honey Muse ‐um which is recognised as being of great importance in the world of bees and apiculture.

It is the home of the Malagueña Association of Beekeepers which was responsible for the museum’s creation and it houses large ‐ scale the Natural Park of Sierras de Tejeda, Almijara and Al‐hama allowed dumps as long as there was a transfer plant or controlled landfill in the Axarquia, which did not happen until April 2015.

Regarding the current state of the quarry, the may‐ or commented that “fortu‐nately with the collabora‐tion of the Junta de Andalu‐cia of President Juanma Moreno, this land has been environmentally nor ‐malised, and has been sealed and duly reforested, to everyone’s satisfaction.”