The coastal authority, Costas, has decided to have a wall erected to stop people parking on the beach near Playa El Cable in Motril this coming summer.
Parking Rebels
The previous two years they had erected no-parking signs and fined drivers until their eyes bled for parking on a beach so wide that you would run out of petrol if you tried to drive across; the beach is sacred, even an insignificant strip unofficially used as parking.
After incurring the wrath of beach users last summer with suggestions being scribbled on the noticeboards along the lines of a physical impossibility…. Costas has decided to build a wall across the hitherto entrance to the beach so that you cannot drive onto it, bless their cotton socks.
The Town Hall, which leans more towards beach users rather than beach deniers, is very unhappy with Costas and considers that the wall erected next to Chiringuito El Espeto had been knocked up “with malice aforethought” (nocturnidad y alevosía)
Now, as the Town Hall is governed by the PP (conservative) and the Central Government is PSOE (socialist) and Costas belongs to the latter, they have spared no soundbytes of ink in criticising this “Wall-of-Shame” move.
They complain that nobody told them anything about what was afoot and poutingly point out that Costas was quite willing and capable to knock up the Great Wall of China in a few hours but can’t get round to building the long awaited breakwater on Playa de Poniente.
The Mayor, Luisa García Chamorro, says that she had offered alternative remedies but Costas had considered them to be “not viable.” Mayor Garcia, besides now having a surplus of unsent Christmas Cards on her hands, pointed out that this wall puts beach users’ lives at risk because ambulances can no longer access the beach in the case of an emergency. Fair point, perhaps.
The Councillor for Beaches, José Lemos, said that the Playa de Poniente needed improvements but instead of spending money on them, Costas has decided to spend its money on this wall.
In the meatime, the Chairman of the Asociación de Chiringuitos, Francisco Trujillo, has expressed “consternation” because he considers that this beach would lose competitivity with other beach destinations because of the wall – business would suffer he warned.
The Town Hall, instead of putting all its eggs into one basket; i.e., hoping for a multiple lightning strike on the provincial Head of Costas, Fernando Rey, has promised that it will provide alternative parking as they did during previous summers.
(News: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)