When the open land behind Calle Los Huertos was turned into a huge, free car park, remaining so for almost ten years, there was reasons to celebrate – parking is a tremendous asset for any town that hopes to survive on tourism. The later move to put a pay barrier at the entrance put an end to that – but parking is parking.

However, the latest move by the company that runs it to do away with the special-rate parking for local residents has created a lot of irritation – and that is an understatement. Up until now, these 30-day tickets (bonos) cost nearby residents 20 euros a month, whereas anybody else pays 30 euros for the same period.

What it basically boils down to is that the private company, although it undoubtedly relied on local residents to keep the parking ticking over during the off-season months, now seemingly wants to make as much profit as possible by suppressing the special rates for their arguably ‘bread-&-butter’ customers from the 1st of April until the 31st of October… not a very convincing way of expressing their appreciation of customer loyalty, evidently. Those that had taken out a yearly contract, paying monthly payments, however, can continue with their old rate, but for the rest, you either pay 100 euros a month from now until November or 1.8 euros an hour.

Two things should be taken into consideration: the land that holds 1,000 parking spaces is private land, and as such, its owners have every right to make it available or not to the general public, and secondly, many drivers opted for not paying the monthly rate as during the winter there was alternative, free parking available – it was only with the arrival of Easter that a rush to use Los Huertos de Carabeo parking developed.

Furthermore, the land remains an open plot because of the delay to the final approval of the town’s PGOU or Urban Development Plan; once that goes through, there is a project to build 400 dwellings on the land. The Town Hall is faced with the dilemma of accepting that the land owners charge for parking on it, or face the consequences of losing all that parking space should the owners decide to close it.

Some might remember, by the way, that just prior to the elections the Mayor, José Alberto Armijo (PP), promised that locals would only have to pay seven euros a month, but the company axed that rate and established the 20-euro pass.

Nerja has an important parking problem – who doesn’t – because public parking is a rarity. The underground car park near El Balcón is expensive, but it can afford to be, as it has a waiting list for extended-period parking. So unless you are lucky enough to have parking there, you either have to park on the other side of town in the Verano Azul Park, or you opt for the Carabeo parking.

Finally, the Councillor for Parking, Inocencia Quintero (you have a councillor for everything, nowadays) pointed out that she is not in the least in accord with the decision taken by the private company, and is attempting to make the company reconsider its stance.

Good luck on that one.

(News: Nerja, Axarquia, Costa del Sol, Malaga, Andalucia)