Motril Town Halls has plans to revitalise Playa Granada by increasing services in its most ‘forgotten areas.’

Playa Granada hit its zenith with the arrival of the Belgian monarchs, who purchased 26,000 sq/m of land down there and built their Villa Astrida in the 60s. The King died 26 years ago and a little bit of Playa Granada died with him.

That is, until now, because the Councillor for Tourism, José Lemos, wants to make the beach areas of Motril into its main attraction, but he will have to take on Costas to achieve it.

The 300 lineal metres in front of Villa Astrida is relatively void of beach facilities so the Councillor’s department has drawn up a project that will be submitted before the Junta de Andalucía and Costas.

The plan is to run a footpath alongside the property from where Playa de Poniente begins up to Hotel Robinson. To do this he wants Costas to deal with Motril as they have done with Mijas, where it has been more ‘accommodating.’

The Town hall has already marked out the planned footpath with posts and plans to install beach showers and wooden walkways to the sea for people with mobility problems. Furthermore, next summer the hours that the lifeguards will be on duty will be prolonged.

Originally the councillor was going to eliminate the non-smoking beach (in front of Villa Astrida) but has decided instead to maintain it as it will lend value to the owners of Villa Astrida. For this reason he has asked them to remove the green fence around the property that stops people having a view of the gardens and which at the same time detracts from the general ‘aesthetics’ of the beach.

Finally, the Town Hall will put an information office next to the property to explain the history, etc of Villa Astrida and, perhaps, two, small, children’s play parks; one on Playa Granada and the other on Playa de Poniente.

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