The Iberian Platform for Roads Públicos in Huelva has denounced the Minas de Riotinto City Council, for lack of public transparency, specifically for not responding to requests for building permits in the La Naya-Zarandas area, before the Andalusian Council for Transparency and Data Protection.
The administrations involved, in general, “are not responding to the complaints about the closures of public roads, video surveillance posts and fencing on the sides of the main road of the old local road HV-5015 (which continues to appear without numbering on the official map road map of Andalusia, on the IGN map and even on the official road map of Spain) in the abandoned industrial zone of La Naya – Zarandas de Minas de Riotinto.
This road connects with the village of Las Delgadas, the remains of the town of La Naya, the area of Cultural Interest, the Riotinto Protected Landscape, the Río Tinto Ecological Corridor, the Río Tinto Nature Trail (the so-called “greenway”) » at Los Frailes station), with Berrocal, with El Madroño, etc. and through which the new Camino from El Rocío to Santiago runs (which is beginning to be signposted in some areas of the province of Huelva).
The person responsible for cutting and fencing in the area is La Rio Tinto Foundation, which tries to justify them for reasons of security for people and to avoid the plundering of industrial remains. However, the residents of the area who walked freely there, or did hiking, cycling or any other sporting activity, believe that the real reason for the Rio Tinto Foundation is to make paid guided tours, as they have already done with one of the fenced off areas. “Tuesday on Earth”, which is one of the new tourist attractions offered to visitors, and they assure that the proof of this is that the remains of wagons, locomotives, etc. They have been in the open air for many years without being restored.
On the Foundation’s website we can read: «The Rio Tinto Foundation for the History of Mining and Metallurgy is a private, non-profit and permanent cultural institution…/…
Over time, it has established itself as an international reference in conservation, rehabilitation and putting into use the historical, industrial, cultural, landscape and environmental heritage linked to mining activity that has been carried out for centuries in the Riotinto Mining Basin.»
Neighbors and users of the area doubt these conservation purposes, landscape and environmental protection with the 3 gates that prevent passage through the rural road HV-5015 and another access road to the Tinto river, the fence that is it is putting, which breaks the landscape and does not allow the passage of wild fauna, of the posts and surveillance cameras that record the passage of people and children without their consent, opening ditches in other areas to prevent the passage of vehicles, etc.
Fences that prevent the passage to the roads
In addition, with the fences, access is prevented to those born and raised in La Naya, who have even created an Association of Nayeros, and to all visitors to the different areas that make up the Rio Tinto Cultural Interest Asset, free of charge as it says the Heritage Law of Andalusia, to establish hours in visible places a few days a month (minimum 4 days).
These neighbors also say that if they were really concerned about the safety of people, the tourist train should not circulate in the current state of some sections of the train tracks, which need revision and repair.
There are “many irregularities without response from the Minas de Riotinto City Council (due to the cuts in public roads under its jurisdiction), from the Huelva Provincial Council (which in 2019 spent one hundred thousand euros to condition the HV-5015 road from La Naya to Las Delgadas and is investing in the open sections of the Camino Natural del Tinto, but that his idea is to make a cycling route from the source of the Tinto to Huelva -accompanying the Tinto River from Talleres Mina, the departure station of the tourist train- and to the route of the Camino from El Rocío to Santiago, which cannot be accessed).
The Iberian Platform has begun to denounce the lack of public information from the administrations, before the Council for Transparency and Data Protection of the Junta de Andalucía, starting with the first person involved; The City Council of Minas de Riotinto, which we understand has not been able to grant a building license to some gates that close two public roads, listed as such in the cadastre, and in which the Provincial Council made an investment in part of one of them 4 years ago , nor a few surveillance posts on those roads.
