There was quite a drama over a restored, public drinking tap in the old town of Almuñécar, San Miguel because the finished result was not to everybody's liking.

These taps or drinking fountains date back to when many houses up there near the castle didn’t have running water, so the taps were the epicentre of day-to-day life and a social meeting point.

One of them, known as the Grifo de la Coja (The Lame Woman’s Tap) on Calle Horno Cuatro Esquinas and not far from Bar Pajaritos, needed to be restored but the local artist rather than ‘restoring’ it, he turned it into his own take on what the tap should look like.

The artist concerned, José Cabrera, works in the Municipal Maintenance Department and is the man responsible for the mosaic stone benches near the Paseo del Altillo and the Octopus roundabout. He also had a painting exhibition in the Casa de la Cultura.

Such was the outcry that it was demolished within 24 hours, with the opposition socialist party claiming that it was “an attack on our heritage.”

The Councillor for Culture, Alberto Gilabert, pointed out that the tap hadn’t been in use for 40 years but admits that the finished result was “not what they had expected.”

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