When you have to walk 100 metres across a beach to reach the sea, it doesn't make sense that you can't use some of it for parking.

Well, that’s what many Motrileños and visitors who use Playa de Poniente consider; an opinion shared by Motril Town Hall, but Costas… all powerful Costas, doesn’t agree.

If it’s sand, it’s sacred… and it doesn’t matter if it was dug out of the river bed (silt) to top the beaches up.

Mayor Luisa García Chamorro insists that using a small part of the beach – the part furthest from the water – is not incompatible with normal beach use.

Demarcación Provincial de Costas (their full title) says that to be able to create this sort of parking, whilst keeping within the Ley de Costas, the Town Hall should request it through the Junta de Andalucia. Costas, by the way, belongs to the Central Government.

However, this would run foul of Articles 31 & 32 of the Ley de Costas, which stipulated that ceded space on the beach can only be done if the nature of the activity or installations cannot be placed elsewhere.

How is it that on Playa Granada, a part of the beach has been used to house parking. “Ah,” points out Costas, “that land doesn’t come under Costas’ authority as it was segregated through a ministerial decision in 2005 (27th June).

So, there is a car park on what is quite obviously part of Playa Granada, but Costas has no say in it, even though that section is evidently part of the beach, whilst Playa de Poniente, with a much wider beach, does lie within their grasp and you can’t even sneeze on it.

During previous summers, the Town Hall requested “exceptional & temporary” permission for in-line parking along the wall that separates the paseo from the beach, as well as requesting that Costas (Central Government) negotiates with the Junta to decide the border where the beach begins (thus allowing a strip for parking). Neither has come to much.

The Chairman of the Asociación de Chiringuitos, Francisco Trujillo, is of the same opinion as the Mayor: “We understand that a parking area could be set up, something that we have been after for the last six years,” adding, “Playa de Poniente is under a curse and the absence of parking is prejudicial to the beach, the locals, visitors and the business sector.”

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