A beautiful Spanish town which is a holiday mecca for sun-seeking Brits has been overshadowed by a giant abandoned hotel, branded by one local as an “abomination.”

The town has become a firm favourite with UK tourists in recent years, with Channel 4’s A Place in the Sun showcasing numerous properties in the area.

But not everything is as rosy as it seems. A short distance along the coast is the derelict Algarrobico hotel, in between Mojacar and the neighbouring industrial town of Carboneras. Built in 2003, the 21-storey 411-room building was abandoned in 2006 when it was almost ready to open.

Building work was halted as environmental campaigners branded the structure as “illegal” due to its location within the Cabo de Gata Nature reserve. After years of legal back and forth, the Spanish Supreme Court agreed.

However, the vast monstrosity hasn’t been pulled down more than a decade since the decision to end building work.

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Lenox Napier, 69, who lives in the nearby city of Almeria and who moved to Mojacar in 1967, told Express.co.uk the ghastly site is unlikely to be raised to the ground due to the exorbitant costs.

He told this website: “They stopped it [construction] and it’s been rotting there ever since.

“No one can take it down, no one dares take it down because of the cost. The man who signs the paper to take it down will be the man remembered as the man who cost the public exchequer €100-€200 whatever it is.

“So no one wants to be responsible for that because for that price you could build a nice hospital, or if you don’t want a hotel, you can build an old people’s home, which some people have suggested.”

The Norfolk native believes the structure may not be salvageable, even if the go ahead to kickstart building work is granted.

He said: “However, after 15 years of rotting in the sun you can’t do anything with it now, it’s beyond salvation. You can’t fix it. It’s been open to elements for 15 years and also open to the people who’ve gone in there and stolen all the fittings, naturally.”

Scolding the Spanish authorities, Mr Napier explained that decision-makers in the southern European country managed to pick the worst of all options in its handling of the derelict hotel.

He said: “You can see from the top of the hill as you drive from Mojacar to Carboneras and you see a fabulous succession of bays there and then plonked in the middle there’s this thing.

“There were two alternatives, one was to build it and open it, the other was to not build it or demolish it. But the Spanish somehow found a third alternative which is far worse than the first two because it’s just sitting there as a hulk.

“It’s a continual reminder of how we didn’t get this together at all. It’s just there right in your face saying ‘you’ve been foolish’ with our tourist policy or our beach policy. There are too many people with their finger in the soup.

“It’s a horrible and ugly thing, that would have been a really ugly hotel or it would have been a pointless bit of 300 metres of scrub which people would have noticed as people drove past.”

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