Probably one of the most controversial actions carried out by the Mayor of Almuñécar, Trinidad Herrera, is taking place: the demolition of the municipal market.

It is not so much that it is finally being demolished, but because the Mayor appears to be taking advantage of the Lock Down to carry it out; i.e., there will be no crowds gathered in protest nor people standing in front of the machines, as there were when the old Paseo del Altillo was being demolished.

Eight years of waiting and now this seemingly undignified haste.

The Mayor says she is acting in response to an outside technical report that states that the building is in imminent danger of collapse. With this paper on her desk she ordered everybody out within 24 hours, on a Friday, giving nobody a chance to get rid of their perishable goods – in a municipal market everything is perishable goods.

Those that have acted in defence of the municipal market demanded a second opinion; i.e., another technical study to confirm the first, fearing that the Mayor had played dirty. But, with this accelerated pace of the process, this hasn’t been possible.

It doesn’t matter that the opposition accused her of not only putting the health of municipal workers at risk during a quarantine period, but she also brought in outside workers to carry out the actual demolition, increasing the risk of contagion.

Eight years ago the Mayor closed the underground parking beneath the market saying that it was unstable and people at the time asked, if it is unstable, why haven’t you closed the market above it? The response was vague and unconvincing.

This move brought about the slow demise of most businesses around the municipal market, as well as the stallholders trading within. There was nowhere to park, thanks both to the previous Mayor, J.C. Benavides and the present Mayor’s decisions to eliminate surface parking near the underground car park, widening pavements onto the space for in-line parking areas. Even at the time many thought that this was more about pleasing the concession holder for the underground parking than for public benefit.

But back to what is happening today, the Mayor says that she has informed the Sub-Delegate for the Government that work has begun. No matter that the building sector has been ground to a halt by the Real Decreto-ley 10/2020 of the 29th of March; the demolition is to go ahead because the decree permits “emergency work.”

It is precisely because of whether the demolition of the market can be classified as an emergency that so much controversy has been whipped up: if the market is empty and nobody is on the streets, why is it an emergency – urgent, yes, but an emergency? An emergency would be that the rivers have broken their banks and heavy machinery is needed to restore river defences, but the demolition of a building that has stood for eight years and is presently empty and fenced off?

No, many will conclude that, “something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”

(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia – Photo: Still from Ideal Video)