Mother and daughter, Gabriele and Kimberly Lee Wesenauer, chained themselves to a mechanical digger on Thursday morning, in an effort to stop, what they say is, illegal building work, on their rural property, the Casa Langostina finca in PAU 25, Lomas de Cabo Roig, Orihuela Costa, originally bought by the Austrian family in mid-1996.
At the time, only fields and pastureland separated the property from the sea, just a few kilometres away – now, according to the family, the immediate surroundings are like a desert of dust and rubble.
There is no longer a pasture landscape in front of the finca. Instead, there is a grey stone wall just a few metres from the entrance to the house, which was built overnight by construction company on the Wesenauers’ property – without a licence, according to the emigrants.
They used to be able to look out over fields and the sea from the house, but now all they can see is a wall. On top of that, some of the family’s vintage cars are parked and unable to be moved because they are blocked in.
Construction machinery recently came threateningly close to the old house, which, according to the emigrants from Austria, was even in danger of collapsing due to the building work. But at the turn of the year, the mayor’s intervention provided a small glimmer of hope for the historic finca.
The builders have since stayed away, until last week that is, when they arrived with heavy machinery so, once again the family took up their protest, on this occasion by chaining themselves to the construction machinery, after which, patrols arrived from the Local Police, the Civil Guard as well as members of the Orihuela Civil Protection.
The family pointed out that the construction of an adjacent building, tourist accommodation and swimming pools, will affect the foundations of their finca with traditional housing for the cultivation of dryland agriculture, and with more than two hundred years of history, a property of historical importance and with great heritage value.
According to Gabriele, the land grab on her property was probably based on old plans at the time, which did not clearly show which part of the property was assigned to which development plan. She stated that the Popular Party-Vox government team promised to initiate a protection file as an Asset of Local Relevance last December.
The family, who have been fighting for two decades to prevent the urbanisation of the surrounding area eventually halted their action only when the Councillor for Urban Planning, Matías Ruíz Peñalver, promised to temporarily stop the work.
As the ladies finally unchained themselves just after 12 noon, a meeting was scheduled to take place between all interested parties on Monday.
