Residents issue warning – and some advice – to those hoping to spend time in La Granadella
“I don’t need to write this, but my connection to this area makes me feel a responsibility to warn you. Take that into account if you wish; I hope you never have to remember reading this. But if you do, let it be for the best.”
The failure of the local council to contract a company to provide access control to the popular coves of La Barraca and La Granadella are having increasing consequences as the summer season fast approaches. As reported yesterday, both zones face an overcrowding crisis after the tender process for the provision of such a service had to be declared void by the contracting commission after it received not a single bid.
And now residents of La Guardia have issued their own warnings and a bit of advice, both via physical posters in the area and on their social media, entitled “Important: Notice for those going down to Cala Granadella”.
The image relayed a resident’s own experiences of trying to get to La Granadella last Saturday, warning that “we were so close to total collapse” and explaining that they know this from experience, having lived in the areas for years and knowing “how distressing it is to be trapped in a traffic jam in the heat, unable to move forward or backward”. They added that “I’m not saying this to scare you. I’m saying it so you think twice before going down without capacity control. It doesn’t matter if you think it won’t happen to you because you’re young”.
The poster then continues with some advice. “If you’re not parked before 12.30pm, you’re already late. At that time, the chaos begins, and parking is done in risky areas” suggesting that a better time is between 5.30pm and 6.00pm when many people have left the area, although it did add that “more and more people are staying until the last minute”, joking that “soon we’ll have to install beds!”
It also asks that visitors make the job of the Cruz Roja and the emergency services easier; illegally parked cars have created narrow spaces through which emergency vehicles would not be able to pass. “If there’s saturation, their room to manoeuvre is greatly reduced”.
And it finishes with a heartfelt message: “I don’t need to write this, but my connection to this area makes me feel a responsibility to warn you. Take that into account if you wish; I hope you never have to remember reading this. But if you do, let it be for the best.”
