It was somewhat strange, and a sad indictment in many ways, to see the almost permanent presence of a police car on the Balcón de Europa throughout the summer period, presumably mainly to ensure that no unauthorised buskers or artists dared entertain the locals and visitors.
Granted there are good and bad ‘entertainers’ – and one does get the occasional dreadful one – but, for me at least, they do usually add a bit of atmosphere to the place. In years gone by there were numerous entertainers of one sort or another and it did add a bit of character one way or another. Not everyone’s cuppa cha of course.
When one considers that, apart from the annual 48 hour crackdown when they all go and hide, the sellers of dodgy watches, sunglasses and DVD’s are so numerous you almost fall over them at every turn.
Numero Seis, a regular venue for ‘live’ music, closed its doors after someone – rumoured (although not verified) to be the owner of another (music) bar in town – put in a ‘denuncia’. The owner of Numero Seis apparently tried to continue without the attraction of weekly music sessions but it didn’t work.
Various bars came and went during the summer, as did some businesses, but that is pretty much par for the course these days.
On the positive side, it at least looks like there is a remote possibility that work might begin next year on the sewage plant and we can look forward to the end of the periodic ‘slick’ off the coast – as can the residents of Torrox who are also affected by the lack of a treatment plant in Nerja. It won’t, of course, be ready until the beginning of 2016 at the very least, and then only if there are no administrative or technical hold-ups.
Why, in the intervening (forty) years no effort seems to have been made to even repair or patch the leaky pipes off Torrecilla and Burriana beaches is anyone’s guess.