Quieter times…

Still excellent weather – long may it continue – but definitely a lot fewer people around at the moment and quite a few places, bars and restaurants mainly, have been closing or are closed for their winter break, some for as long as four months – Scarletta’s, Agape to name but three.

The Balcón de Europa was pretty quiet on Saturday evening, just a few people around.

Surprisingly, there are still a few people brave enough to venture into the sea at the moment. Not many, just a few.

It definitely looks like a change of plan with the renovation of calle El Barrio. Plan A was two phases, one this year and one next October(ish), with phase one being from Plaza Cavana to cafe El Barrio.

As they have started digging at the avenida Castilla Perez end, either they have reversed the phases or are going to attempt to do the whole street in one go. Who knows?

Whichever plan it is, one has to have sympathy with the businesses in the street as they will undoubtedly suffer.

There seems to be a fair number of both potential visitors and regular visitors who are reconsidering their travel plans due to the lack of free parking and the high cost of paid parking in the town these days.

Whilst mass pedestrianisation and restricted parking can have their advantages, they also can have serious consequences to the livelihood of traders in the centre of towns. The UK has an abundance of examples where such actions have led to empty town centres, and once someone builds a shopping mall on the outskirts with free parking then the town centre dies a slow death.

There have, in the past, been schemes put forward for a mall on the edge of Nerja but any such move, however lucrative in terms of licence revenue for the municipal authorities, would probably sound the death knell for many shops in town. Let’s just hope common sense prevails. Fat chance….