Almuñécar converts another plot into new car park and reaches 2,000 spaces in total this summer

Almuñécar town hall has converted the P-4 plot, where the marquee of the day fair was located until Wednesday, into a new car park, with a capacity for about 250 vehicles. The town, which experiences problems with parking spaces in the summer, has now helped alleviate the situation.

The car park, located next to the fairground, with easy access to the centre, will be managed by the Arda association for alcoholism rehabilitation and will operate from 8am until 12am, with the exception of 15 August, when it will be closed for the fair of Almuñécar and the great fireworks display.

Mayor of Almuñécar Juan José Ruiz Joya announced the entry into operation of this new provisional car park on Thursday. With this step, the town hall achieves the objective of creating a total of 2,000 parking spaces this summer.

The new P-4 site joins the one that Almuñécar town hall opened last July on the Pozuelo beach (145 spaces), the ones in La Herradura and the new underground car park at the municipal market, managed by Empark, which offers 230 parking spaces 24 hours a day and electric vehicle charging points.

The plots of land provisionally used as car parks in Almuñécar are also serving a genuine social purpose. President of the provincial authority Francisco Rodríguez praised the "creative solution" that Almuñécar town hall has put on the table - transfering the management of the site it owns to the Cáritas charity until work begins on the new tourist complex next year.

If the administration itself had tried to take over the management of the car park, with all the formalities involved in formalising the process, approving fees and so on, the site would have remained unusable this summer, whereas with the cession to Cáritas the space is being used as a provisional car park.

"We didn't expect it to go so well," said head of Cáritas in Almuñécar Inmaculada Corral, who thanked the town hall and the provincial authority. Since the car park opened, they have received 320 cars a day - five euros for parking, which means 1,600 euros a day. By the end of the summer, the organisation will have collected an amount that it could not even have dreamt of. "It is a very strong economic injection that will allow us to help the families who need it most and fill the Cáritas larder, especially for the critical months, from October to March," she said.

With the money from the San Cristóbal car park and the Pozuelo car park, which they also manage, Cáritas will be able to help the most vulnerable families pay their electricity bills or fill their grocery baskets.