A total of 28 companies have submitted bids to build the underground car park at Burriana beach, a contract currently worth over €2,700,000 and to be financed by the State Fund for the Modernisation of Tourist Infrastructure (FOMIT).
The first stage is to check that the companies submitting bids meet the administrative requirements, the second stage is to open the technical bids and the third is to open the financial bids.
The car park is seen as a very important infrastructure for the Burriana beach area as parking in summer is at a premium. It will have around 180 parking spaces and construction is currently expected to begin in September.
However, as such facilities tend to be expensive for visitors and therefore underutilised (Municipal Car Park and Los Huertos de Carabeo), generally not an economically viable proposition (Parque Verano Azul closed as a public facility) and given that municipal authorities tend not to pay bills, it remains to be seen how this will work out in the long run.
A far better idea would still be a cheap, presentable plot of land with a ‘reasonable’ daily charge. Far cheaper to construct and operate.
Expensive parking does not attract visitors to the town. On the contrary, it is actually forcing many regular visitors to go elsewhere. This, in turn, impacts on the local economy with businesses suffering as a result of visitors not being able to park their vehicles, either free or at a ‘reasonable’ rate.
Many Spanish tourists drive down to Nerja in the summer and tend to just park their car for a month, rarely using it during their stay, but this is likely to change. Either they will choose an alternative means of getting to Nerja or, just as likely, choose an alternative destination where parking is not a problem.