The Salobreña Guardia Civil post is undergoing extensive renovation inside and their temporary workspace is literally, a worksite Portakabin – no, that’s not a misspelling but the trademark name.

Needless to say, the Guardia Civil serving there are far from happy, but being military servicemen rather than civilians, there will be no complaints to the press. However, the Guardia Civil does have an unofficial workers union who are not shy when it comes to making statements.

The Asociación Unificada de Guardias Civiles (AUGC) considers the work conditions for the seven servicemen and the commanding officer as “inhuman” and that they could easily have found a more adequate set-up in Salobreña.

But even the Portakabin is a step up from the original idea, which was a parked police van as a temporary office. Bear in mind that there is a total of 25 police officers assigned to the Salobreña post, seven of which attend to the public, one is engaged in administrative duties, one guards the post and the other twelve patrol the streets.

“They have to be there 24 hours,” pointed out the AUGC Spokesperson, adding, “The police officers have expressed their discontent to us as they consider it an indecent solution.” They also added that there were no toilets for the personnel.

The Town Hall has offered several options, all of which were rejected by G.C. Head Quarters, explaining that they needed somewhere close to the post so that they could attend to people wishing to report a crime, etc. The alternative, says the HQ, was for such services to be transferred to Motril or Vélez de Benaudalla.

It was thanks to a grant from the Provincial Council of 100,000 euros for improvements in all the G.C. posts within Granada. The Guardia Civil also have their own funds meaning that Salobreña ended up with 50,000 for renovations, which includes an entrance ramp and overhaul of the police cells – one person under arrest this summer past managed to escape owing to inadequacies there.

Finally, the Guardia Civil don’t know how long the work will last.

Editorial comment:  The fact is that they can’t attend to members of the public within a building undergoing building work because they would have to be kitted out with worksite protective measures such as a hardhats. Hence the Portakabin to attend to the public.

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