As 2007 was coming to an end, nobody could have imagined how hard the coming squeeze would be; work was in abundance, made evident by the continual coming and going of lorries, loaded with building materials.

That was then, but now Padul, perfectly placed between the provincial capital and the coast, staggers on with just 20% of the volume of work compared to the the good years when it was one of the richest towns in the province. Yet precisely because of that dependency of the building sector, it is probably the one of the worst hit ones, as well.

Of the 149 companies belonging to the construction sector in Padul, which between them generated 60% of the town’s income, only 20 remain – imagine what that represents in unemployment. Well, you don’t need to imagine because 1,263 people are officially unemployed – It was up near the 2,000 mark, mind – in a town that has a total population of 8,412.

Probably the biggest name in Padul is Pérez Lázaro, who also have offices and a yard in Salobreña. Before the crisis they had 423 employees whereas as now it is just 73… for the moment because nobody is expecting anything positive to come out of 2013.

The quarries have gone too, mostly closed through legal actions, leaving only one of the five still operating. Illegal ones were popping up all over Granada to feed the insatiable demand, but whilst the money poured in, blind eyes were turned, almost willing the slowly turning wheels of Spain’s judicial system to turn even slower.

Yet the Mayor, Manuel Alarcón, isn’t giving up, because he knows that once the crisis has passed, the enviable geographic/road communication advantages of Padul will once again push it to the top. The town is pushing green tourism and the area’s once abandoned agricultural sector – nobody wanted to work on the land during the good times – is starting to pick up again. There’s hope in stevia production (sweetleaf), which is a natural sweetener, and could soon be growing in the fields where tobacco used to be cultivated on the vegas.

Readers will already have heard of the Padul mammoth – an archaeological tourist attraction and… a make of locally-brewed beer.

There is hope as well as pain.

(News: Padul, Granada, Andalucia)