The dreaded botellón has returned to the Esplanadas in the centre of Motril after its summer transfer to the beaches. By 11 pm on a warm Saturday evening in October the botellón brigade had started to arrive with their plastic bags full of booze ready to swing into illegal action and keep the 600 residents of the Esplanadas awake until gone 3 am in the morning.
It is at this point of the evening that the residents close up their windows and turn up their televisions in a bid to block out the noise which will stop them having a good night’s sleep.
Then lo and behold, a local police car drives slowly down the Esplanadas (no cars allowed on the Esplanadas … but hey, who are we to argue) and parks at the far end where all the youngsters get together to party. The police presence drives all the youngsters to congregate in the dustbowl car park opposite where the noise becomes even worse as the youngsters drive up in their cars and turn up their music systems to compete with one another.
The authorities, in their bid to get rid of the botellón from the Esplanadas, have now given themselves a much bigger problem and made the noise even more unbearable for the residents. The present Mayor of Motril, Carlos Rojas, made a promise a few years back to remove the botellón from the Esplanadas by putting on a free bus service to take the youngsters from the centre of town to the bull ring which would become the new venue for it. What happened to that promise?