Six years ago, Benavides declared war on the Granadinos over beach umbrellas – there was no problem with people using them for what they were intended; the problem was they were being used to stake out a spot on the beach for later use.
People on holiday in La Herradura would pay the block janitor or bribe Grandad, the habitual early riser, to go down to the beach and stake out a plot with a beach umbrella around 8am. However, the owners of the umbrellas wouldn’t turn up until after a late breakfast, around eleven.
The result was that people who did turn up around 9.00 or 9.30 to enjoy the beach found that all the choice places were occupied by a forest of vacant umbrellas – bloody annoying! So Benny acted and instructed the police to confiscate any unclaimed umbrellas and their owners would have to pay a fine to retrieve them – it was cheaper to buy a new one from the Chinese shops, mind, than pay to get your old one back.
Now with the new conservative Mayoress in charge, it appears that the Town Hall has relented. The by-law stands; it’s just that it is not enforced. No doubt the Mayoress considers that enough tourists have been frightened away from Almunecar in the last few years without antagonising the ones that still chose La Herradura and Almunecar.
Yes, that war between the Sanitex (Granada, low-budget, holiday makers) and the Policia Local not only occupied provincial newspaper print but even made it onto foreign TV programs around Europe. It was hardly surprising, really, when you consider the ‘cost’ of the conflict: 16,000 umbrellas confiscated, 1,000 fines issued, 12 local policemen off sick because they couldn’t take the pressure and a court case over irate Grandinos holding local policemen hostage when they tried to dish out fines…
But the ‘parking’ of the umbrella ban is not the end of the war, but merely a truce for everybody to get their breath back, because it appears that the Town Hall will be brandishing the by-law with glee, come next summer.
(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)