Like an earthquake – gardens have slipped over a metre.
Credit: Neighbours of C. del Priorato, Paraíso Hills.
Chaos has hit a housing complex between Cancelada and San Pedro de Alcántara with houses literally beginning to fall down a hillside.
Once perfectly situated individual family homes have been witnessing their gardens break away while fractures appear inside their homes since construction began on new houses a tier below. The quake-like destruction in Paraíso Hills, Estepona, has caused the earth to open up so much that the underside of some dwellings are actually visible through the cracks.
Construction company began removing supporting wall
The terrifying collapse began earlier this year when a construction company working on another property development on a lower level, but adjacent to the properties, began building work by demolishing part of a stone support wall holding up the previously built houses. Their claim is that the rock structure supporting the hillside properties technically overlapped the plot they are developing. Nonetheless, without prior warning and without an independent topographical study, builders set about removing the support rocks from just below.
Severe fissures began materialising in the gardens above and cracks in the structure of some of the houses leading to panic among residents. Estepona council has since ordered the halting of the new building works until a solution is found. The company have also been ordered, through the courts, to install 80 concrete beams and a concrete slope to bolster support for the preexisting homes above, and repair the all damage they caused. However, little has been done, the residents have been told to pay €3,000 each to go towards costs, and to keep out of their own gardens. Meanwhile, they still wait impatiently as their homes crumble around them.
Credit: Neighbours of C. del Priorato, Paraíso Hills.
A topographer contracted by the construction company claims that the subsidence has stopped and that the houses are now safe. However, residents complain that their houses continue to slowly slide down the hill and that it is clearly visible for anyone to see. No repair work has been carried out while the construction company continues adding support beams and tension cables to stop the homes above from collapsing onto the construction site below.
With the rainy season rapidly approaching, residents are desperate to have a definitive solution as immediately as possible, but considering the director of the construction company refuses to visit the site so to witness the severity of the situation himself, residents remain in fear for their homes.
