Many town halls in the last 20 years have spent a lot of money on public services, creating sports facilities and kindergartens, to name but just two. Although the intention is genuine in its object of making the life of citizens richer in social facilities, sometimes such ideas inadvertently create unfair competition with the public sector.

The problem has been, until recently, town halls, through grants from provincial and regional administrations, have been able to subsidise the running costs of such establishments, thus offering cheap access to them, leaving the private sector unable to compete. The irony is that these same private businesses are subsidising this direct competition with their own taxes – a bitter pill to swallow. And this appears the case with the municipal gym facilities in Almuñécar.

Almuñécar, at one point, had four private gyms, covering their running costs with membership fees, but then the Town Hall decided to dedicate a part of the Casa de la Culture to a sizable gymnasium, equipped with top-notch, work out apparatus, as well as a sauna, where it remained until 2006, before being transferred to the municipal sports stadium, Francisco Bonet. At first, the new municipal gym was open to all, until 2007, when regulations changed, making it obligatory for users to be a member of a sports federation. This helped stem a flood of gym users bleeding from the private gymnasiums.

The problem really began when between 2010 and 2011 the gym was privatised, and taken on by Antonio Contreras, who had been in charge of the gym in its public form, but the crunch was most keenly felt when in 2012 regulations changed, opening the gym to anybody over 16 who was empadronado in Almuñécar.

Unfortunately, the multi-day passes have not changed in all this time, costing ten euros for 15 hours of gym use, which is a price that private gyms just cannot compete with. Sr. Contreras considers that membership has not risen very much, which is not what the private gyms believe, as they witness their membership numbers slip away.

Of course, this has turned into a political battle with the CA (Benavides’ party) accusing the governing party of creating this unfair competition, to which the present Councillor for Sports has responded that it was the previous mayor’s administration who set the present-day prices in 2006…

Many might consider that things are tough enough, as they are, without having to compete against a rival who is involuntarily financed by yourself.

(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada Costa Tropical