Catral - town in the Alicante Province
Catral is situated on the CV-905 just north of the town of Almoradí, it can easily be reached from the AP-7 motorway and is within about 20 minutes drive of Alicante airport and around 40 minutes from Murcia (San Javier) airport. Catral is approximately 10 kilometres from the beaches of Guardamar del Segura.
Catral is renowned in the area for having a large number of illegally built houses and the town council is being investigated by the Courts of Orihuela for their lack of action to stem the flow of illegal building work, much of it on a protected Nature Reserve (El Hondo) which is an important area for migrating birds. In 2005 there were some 1,200 illegal builds, either completed or under construction.
The name of the town is said to be derived from the Moorish 'Al-Quatrullat', other theories suggest that it comes from the latin for 'fortified villa' (Castrum Altum) or maybe even from the Iberian meaning 'Karl Turl' (Double Summit) referring to the Cabezos de Albatera. Either way the history of Catral certainly goes back to the Arab occupation (8th to 13th centuries) and when the Moors were subsequently defeated by Alphonso of Castille in 1255, it came under the Kingdom of Castille. Later the same century in 1296 control changed once again and control of Catral passed to the Kingdom of Aragon under the auspices of Orihuela.
Over the centuries Catral has been primarily an agricultural area, with important crops being citrus fruits, olives, artichokes and cereals, there was also some cattle farming and some light industry.
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Warning
Since July 2005 the Mayor of Catral, Don José M. Rodríguez Leal from the PSOE party, and the rest of the town council, are being investigated by the Orihuela Court of Law, regarding their lack of action to stop the illegal building in the countryside. This illegal building situation was denounced by the Seprona unit from the Guardia Civil. According to the Seprona, there are more than 1200 illegal house built or in construction in the countryside of Catral.
This investigation comes, just a few weeks after the Mayor, José M. Rodríguez Leal, proposed a new building programme called PGOU, that is facing total opposition from the majority of the citizens of Catral. —It appears that many of the British residents living in these illegal houses are unaware that all could be subject to demolition orders for being built on plots of considerably less than the legal minimum of 10,000m2, as well as within the protected park of El Hondo where building is not allowed on any size plot. The plan to urbanise is the only way to legalise these properties, and has been put forward as an alternative to demolition. It is virtually certain that the houses within the nature reserve, used by migrating birds as well as a resident population of water birds,will be demolished.
On October 3, 2006, the regional government of Valencia suspended the municipality's urban planning authority. This is the second case in Spain after Marbella's. An investigation is currently under way, and may end with the dismissal of the current municipal authority of Catral.
BEWARE: