First of all, they appeared in La Herradura and were the talk of the town, and now they have made an appearance in Almuñécar – and we’re not talking about tourists who took the wrong turning and ended up here, but the dreaded speed cameras.

Along the Avenida de la Costa del Sol, before the road begins to climb up to Costa Banana stands the silent spectre of Town Hall greed. And greed it is because this is not about behaviour adjustment measures to improve citizen safety, but all about raking in more and more money into the municipal coffers.

However, the speed cameras have been so effective in their task that the Town Hall has had to tell the company that runs them to adjust the speed limit – the Town Hall is flooded under so many fines that it can’t handle them all – orgasms all round for the bottomless chasm that we call municipal running costs.

The speed cameras, which can be found as mentioned above, as well as the Paseo Reina Sofía and Paseo Andrés Segovia, were installed during September and by the end of October, drivers were receiving speeding fines through their letterboxes – some drivers having received three or four at once. There was going to be one month’s grace for people to get used to the idea, but that went down in flames.

So how much did this latest addition to citizen vexation cost? 141.999 euros, thanks to the Central Government in Madrid, and if it were not enough, the Guardia Civil is going to borrow an unmarked car with a speed camera installed.

But do you know what the most ironic thing is? The real speeding danger on our streets is not drivers, but kids on customised mopeds who consider speed bumps to be an attraction to be enjoyed – the faster the better. Are they worried about speeding fines? They don’t even have valid insurance and driving licences, so how in the hell are they going to be bothered by speeding fines? In the meantime, tradesmen and workers, struggling to make ends meet in these difficult times are assailed by an ever increasing battery of fines and harassment from the Town Hall in order that the bloated salaries of the ‘politically-appointed’ employed within can be paid.