The Almuñécar branch of the opposition party, IU, has complained that there is a lack of information on parking on the Friday market area this summer.

The said area, Paseo Blas Infante, is not only the largest free, parking area during most of the year in Almuñécar, but is also where the Friday and Sunday markets are held.

This arrangement is altered during the summer, when it becomes paid parking, run by local charities. However, the market days continue, meaning that like the rest of the year, you cannot park there from the evening before; i.e. Thursday and Saturday evenings through to the following evening.

In August the town completely loses this much needed parking area to the summer fair; i.e., the week before the fair whilst it is being set up, the actual week of the summer fair, and the following week whilst it is all being taken down.

According to the IU there is a deficit in warning signs to alert visitors to the fact that you can’t park there when the market days are held, meaning that tourists unwittingly park there on a Thursday night, for example, only to have their cars towed away – a sure-fire way of increasing tourism.

On the other side of the coin, the Sunday Flea Markets have just been cancelled until the end of August meaning that locals and more savvy visitors don’t realise that you can park there over the weekend, resulting in the, again, much need parking space left empty, which was the case on Sunday the 15th.

The IU admits that there are signs indicating when you cannot park there, but their number and visibility is insufficient, and in the case of weekend parking now being permitted until they set up the fair, the change was virtually unknown to all, owing to poor management by the Town Hall, considers the IU.

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