Mojacar village to get controversial car park

MOJACAR Pueblo residents are to get the highly controversial €1.5 million underground car park, despite criticism from the opposition parties.

The car park is planned to be built near the church in Mojacar Pueblo, which was declared an ‘Asset of Cultural Interest’, and will be for use by residents. Work on the car park – of 37 places – is expected to start in October.

The project proposed by Partido Popular (PP) Mayor Rosa Maria Cano at the latest local authority meeting, and given her party enjoys majority rule, it was approved. The Mayor said the car park will Critics say it is a waste of money that will not benefit the town, but Cano believes it will benefit Mojacar Village by reducing the ‘parking problem’.

She believes that the development will ‘revitalize’ the town centre because people are put off living in the pueblo due to the lack of parking places. At the last plenary meeting, which spokesman Diego Garcia described as “tense”, Union Mojaquera voted against the project.

The project shows that it will include canvas covers similar to the sails of a ship which Garcia said “totally clash with the architectural style in Mojacar”.

“When towns with historical centres throughout Europe are creating pedestrian areas, Mojacar will be doomed to never have one. This project is an atrocity which will not resolve the parking problem in the town, and is an attack on the image of a town which is internationally famous for the charm of its winding streets”.

The work will last between 15 and 18 months. “Meanwhile, the town”, said Garcia, “in the middle of a financial crisis, will have to pay the consequences of a huge project which will be difficult to carry out due to how narrow the access to the area is.” Garcia’s concerns were echoed by Jessica Simpson from Mojacar Positive Se Mueve who warned of the project’s “harm, negative consequences and danger that this construction can cause apart from the high cost and the lack of paking solutions.”

“All we got in return was a bad attitude and the expulsion of one of our members who was in the audience and was recording the public meeting with a camera,” she added.

Last year, a protest was held by local residents, opposition parties, business associations as well as residents, architects and lawyers against the project. During protests in 2010, members of the Mojacar Peatonal Group demanded Mojacar defended that keeping the old part of Mojacar as a pedestrian area makes it more attractive to tourists and helps small businesses.

In February this year, two councillors were expelled for their plans to vote against it.

Carlos Cervantes (Asamblea Izquierdista) and Angel Medina (Ciudadanos Europeos) were expelled ahead of the plenary meeting at which the plans were to be discussed and which was later cancelled. This left Cano in the minority, as only five of the 13 councillors on the corporation belonged to the governing team.

By Jennifer Leighfield