Any doubts as to the fate of hitherto parking spaces on Almuñécar’s Avenida de Andalucía has now been dispelled – they’ve all gone. In fact, it doesn’t appear there are even loading/unloading spaces, either.
What is taking shape are pavements on either side of a narrow, single-lane road, which are individually much wider than the road.
During eleven months of the year the town is relatively empty. Only during a total of 30 days (peak summer and Semana Santa) is there anywhere near the amount of pedestrian traffic to warrant these landing strips down either side of an emaciated road.
Yet first we witnessed the parking areas in Plaza Madrid and Avenida de Andalucía leading into it reduced in the case of the former and obliterated in the latter, and now it is plainly obvious from the curbstones being laid that parking from Caja Rural up to Plaza de Las Magnolias has also been erased.
Where is the logic? The European-wide fashion of turning towns into pedestrian areas with restricted vehicle access – far-sighted town planning? Or is it short-sighted greed to push motorists into over-priced underground car parks, which had to be rescued using public funds during construction?
There is one overriding factor that Almuñécar cannot avoid – it is a tourist town.
Almuñécar needs – no, desperately needs, people to come and spend their money here and to do that, over 90% of them arrive by car. Few arrive by bus and let’s face it, who’s seen an airport around town or a ferry terminal, for that matter.
This municipal administration promised to cut back vigorously on blue zones, which had proliferated to insane levels under the previous administration. Mayor Herrera pledged that once the existing contracts with the private companies that run them expired, they would either be discontinued and returned to free parking, or pruned back to sensible levels.
Not only has this not happened as promised, but the municipal car park under the market has remained closed for the last two years, driving stall holders to desperation and why? Political bickering and unconvincing explanations.
The simple truth is that since the copious income earned on building licences has dried up, town halls all along the coast and major provincial towns, including the capital, have decided that parking fines and blue zones will make up for income loses – which is tremendously short sighted, especially in towns that earn their keep from the pockets of tourists.
(News/Opinion: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)