Manzanares La Verguenza

As we followed the Manzanares river down towards El Tranco on Sunday after a fantastic walk in the mountains, the horizon was dominated by a huge crane; and I'm not talking about the living variety. La Pedriza is one of the most beautiful parts of the Sierra de Guadarrama and deserves maximum protection, but those who run the municipality of Manzanares el Real clearly hate it. They have decided to allow significant construction of new houses right into the foot of this spectacular rocky landscape. Those who buy these houses will not have a view of the mountains, they will be living in them. It's probably the most appalling piece of vandalistic construction that I have seen in the region. Of course each successive encroachment into this previously pristine space provides the pretext for the next one.

Now I do not know which party runs Manzanares el Real, and for the moment I have avoided looking it up. I can only express the desire that whoever it is gets kicked out of office in Sunday's election, even if it is too late to stop the destructive development. The curse of South of Watford on those building the houses, on those buying them, on those who approved it, and those who vote for them. May plagues of termites invade your homes. As for the poor river Manzanares, if it only knew what awaits it in Madrid it would turn around and go back up the hill.