The Almuñécar, municipal-market affair festers on, with the governing party trying to sell its project as a positive move with nobody else buying it.
The opposition parties claim that the new building, which will house a large supermarket plus a symbolic number of market stalls, will just be a large, square building occupying the whole old market area, including the perimeter patios, which serve as a kind of public square where people meet.
The Mayor says that this is not true.
The opposition parties say that it will be higher and blot out the views from surrounding buildings.
The Mayor says that this is not true.
The opposition parties say that the Mayor has sold out to a large supermarket chain, handing over this prime real-estate area and denying the town this traditional market-cum-social focal point.
The Mayor says that the new arrangement will be positive for the town.
Fact: many of the people who are complaining about the loss of the municipal market buy their fish and veg in Mercadona or in any of the other large supermarkets.
Fact: the Mayor’s handling of the whole municipal-market situation has been disastrous, starting with the illogical closure of the underground parking which has effectively strangled the economic life out of the surrounding area and not only the market stallholders.
Fact: the municipal market and its social attraction for many locals is 20th century; sadly the 21st Century brings with it online purchasing which is doing away with small businesses who cannot compete with the triple-pronged attack by supermarket chains, cheap oriental bazaars and Amazon.
Conclusion: we all protested when the previous Mayor went ahead with his plan to demolish the old Paseo del Altillo and build the present-day one, which is quite frankly, inferior, but you can’t cry over spilt milk. The market will disappear and we will complain, but within 12 months of the new arrangement opening, locals will be doing their shopping there all the same.
(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)