The Environment Department of the Salobreña Town Hall has decided to crack down on uncontrolled rubbish dumping around the town, ranging from domestic rubbish to building waste. Besides being a public health risk, it’s also an eyesore, says a Town Hall spokesman.

With this in mind, the councillor concerned, Martín Valenzuela, has begun a control campaign which has eliminated three such illegal rubbish tips.

Once of the worst areas was along the road that comes down past the town cemetery. What the Town Hall has done is to erect a high chain-link fence. Another ‘hotspot’ is in the industrial estate, where an empty building plot next to rubbish containers was accumulating all kinds of rubbish. The rubbish containers have been moved and the area tidied up.

Finally, around the balate/molino area, the Town Hall JCB has created an earth wall that prevents vehicles getting into the area, thus preventing them from unloading building rubble and other rubbish there.

Having eliminated, as detailed above, three of the four hotspots, the next move will be on the old rubbish dump, where locals continue to dump furniture and old fridges, etc there, despite it being closed.

Accompanying this drive, the Town Hall will also begin an informative campaign, warning locals that illegal dumping could have them paying fines of between 300 and 300,000 euros, depending on the gravity of the offence. A great deal of effort is going into driving home the point that the town has ‘puntos limpios’ (official rubbish collection points).

(News: Salobrena, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)