The Junta de Andalucia has rejected their administrative separation from Motril, primarily because of their proximity to the metropolis.

The other reason given was that these two municipal-annexes could not finance their own municipal police or rubbish-collection services.

The First Councillor for Carchuna-Calahonda, Concepción Abarca, said, “We must go on with our heads held high,” upon receiving the blow from Sevilla.

The Ley de Demarcación Municipal de Andalucía stipulates that there must be at least 5,000 metres non-urban-area separation between the mother municipality and the village concerned. It is precisely the gradual urbanizing of the Puntalón area that has scuppered this consideration for El Llano, as Carchuna-Calahonda are often referred to.

The Junta also based its decision on three reports drawn up by the Motril Town Hall, which basically underline that the income that these independent villages could hope to count upon could not finance the necessary services, such as a local police force and rubbish collection.

El Llano would need to increase its administrative staff significantly; five local policemen with the logical extra expense of providing them with police offices, equipment and official vehicles.

(News: Carchuna-Calahonda, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)