The first try at turning the centre of Motril into a no-go zone for cars, except delivery vehicles, had most residents and traders grumbling.

The police had put up the barriers on the Friday the 16th but by the time that the weekend was over the Municipal Council was receiving anxious requests to drop the experiment because shopkeepers are nervous that the Christmas shopping period will be a disaster.

It didn’t help that the Policia Local were over zealous to dish out fines, either, but what the restrictions didn’t dampen the rainfall did – perhaps if it hadn’t rained during those days things would have gone smoother, because shoppers were reluctant to wander the streets in the rain.

The fact is that the majority of business owners, who were not convinced even before the trial period ended up, are now 100% anti and hammering at the Town Hall doors.

The Mayor, Flor Almón, flanked by her Councillor for Urban Planning, Antonio Escámez, has promised to listen with attention to the business owners and their ‘concerns.’

Logically, if you are selling large items, such as beds or sofas, how can you expect customers to take them away with them if they cannot access the area with their own cars?

And, of course, pedestrians need time to get used to the idea that they don’t have to stick to the pavements, so that during this trial period, for example, the traffic-absent roads were not ‘filled’ by pedestrians.

Perhaps not everybody would be so negative about the idea if it had been done better; i.e., including fewer streets to start with. Brightening the atmosphere of the streets might have help because with the cars missing the central streets were almost ‘lonely.’ More Christmas lights, some piped, low-key music seeping from speakers along the way wouldn’t have gone amiss.

But what really worries the shopkeepers in the centre is that the slightest inconvenience to traditional shoppers will have them opting for the big shopping centres, such as the newly opened Nevada one in Granada.

One could suppose that the underlying idea that hums through the minds of most shop owners is, “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it;” in other words, leave things as they were.

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