Marbella tries to clean up its act

Marbella has long been a favourite spot for Britons to settle and enjoy their twilight years slowly roasting in the Mediterranean sun. It has been unkindly called "the Spanish Bourne-mouth". So it was first feared the latest scandal would mean some 5,000 homes in Marbella, many owned by Britons, would be bulldozed as they were built with illegal licences or none at all. But the new city council and many of the developers and building companies implicated in the web of corruption struck a deal, which has granted a reprieve to thousands of worried property owners. Now under the new administration, a development plan is to grant a reprieve to the owners of all but 752 homes.