Readers will remember that an opposition party criticised the Almuñécar Town Hall for the lack of beach lifeguards after the 30th of August.

Well, the Town Hall has replied, although not exactly ‘responded.’

First of all, the Town Hall press release quoted the figures behind the beach lifeguard posts, saying that they had provided assistance on 1,207 occasions during the “summer.” It is worth noting that the discrepancy is over the interpretation about when the summer officially finishes.

The Chief of Protección Civil, Cecilio Fajardo, explained that the four posts, which are located on San Cristóbal, Puerta del Mar, Velilla and La Herradura, were not manned by his members, as had been the case in previous years, but by private lifeguards that had been hired by the Town Hall, even though the coordination was carried out by the Protección Civil.

Although informative, the press release offered no explanation as to why the posts were closed on the last day of August, even though the summer doesn’t end until the last week of September. The beaches, owing to this particularly hot September, have been crowded, especially on weekends, despite no warning-flag system being operative.

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