Oberstdorf (dpa / lby) - After investigations into illegal construction work on the Allgäu Rappenalpbach, the Oberallgäu district administrator Indra Baier-Müller defended the actions of her authority in the case. "My administration behaved correctly," said the Free Voters politician on Wednesday. "I can't blame my employees." The authorities "immediately" imposed a freeze on construction when they found out about the illegal work on the strictly protected creek. "By that time, of course, the fait accompli had largely been created."
In an interview with Bayerischer Rundfunk, the person responsible for the alpine cooperative, on whose behalf the work on the torrent had been carried out, had previously assigned responsibility for the destruction of nature to the district office. In a memorandum, the authorities had declared certain work on the creek to be permissible, which in turn the alpine cooperative took as a building permit. The authorities, on the other hand, emphasized that a complex approval process would have been necessary for such an extensive canalisation of the creek.
The administrative court in Augsburg came to the same conclusion in the first instance. The urgent application from the Alpine cooperative is now with the Administrative Court in Munich. The person responsible for the Alpine cooperative "knows what he has done," wrote the district office on Wednesday in its statement. His statements in the interview are "obvious protective claims".
The cooperative had massively altered the strictly protected Rappenalpbach near Oberstdorf over a length of about 1.6 kilometers with an excavator. The criminal police have started investigations on suspicion of endangering areas in need of protection. The change in the torrent is also an issue in the state parliament.
