In case you missed it, last Thursday saw the Blue Zones on Amuñécar and La Herradura seafront paseos and elsewhere come into effect... all day.

Yes, from Thursday the 1st of July, lasting until the 31st of August, you’ll have to pay for parking in the said areas between 11.00h and 15.00h and then between 19.00h to 22.00h every day of the week.

Furthermore, there is a limitation on how long you can stay in a given Blue-Zone area, which is maximum of three hours.

Councillor for Citizen Safety, Francisco Robles Rivas, reminds drivers that you can pay for your parking with organ and bodily extremity donation… just kidding! No, you can pay using an app on your mobile phone, is what he actually said. The one he is referring to is Easypark.

The advantage, apart from not having to search around for coins, is that you can pay without having to make your way back to your parked car, if your time is about to run out.

So, these Blue-Zone parking areas are on: Paseo Puerta del Mar and Paseo Velilla, Playa Tesorillo, Playa El Pozuelo, Avenida Adolfo Suárez (Galera Playa), Plaza de Abderramán, Paseo de Las Flores, Paseo San Cristóbal , Paseo Rincón de la China and Paseo Cotobro, (as far as Edificio Los Ramos.)

There’s also Zone Eight, which comprises of Avenida Mar de Plata, Calle Pirámide and Avenida Amelia Sánchez de Alcázar, along the section between the crossroad with Mar de Plata (Mercadona) and Calle Pirámide.

As for La Herradura, it’s Paseo Andrés Segovia from the Mercado Municipal up to the crossroad giving access to Calle Alhambra and Calle Gonzalo Barbero.

Editorial comment: we’ve had the joy of Blue-Zone, paid parking since 2009 which was introduced with the excuse that it would stop people parking up for a whole month with a cover over their car. The world economic crisis hit the year before and nobody, absolutely nobody amongst our habitual visitors can afford a whole month’s holiday since then, yet, blue zoning continues…

(News: Almunecar/Herradura, Cost Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)