Concern over Dénia traffic closure
TRADERS and residents are urging Dénia council not to go ahead with the permanent pedestrianisation of the Marqués de Campo boulevard, saying it will 'affect life in general for everyone' – not just shopkeepers and restaurateurs.
As well as the latter, other professionals with offices on the central artery of the town and its side streets have joined the fight to keep it open to traffic.
Until lockdown, the street was only pedestrianised during fiestas, in high summer, on bank holidays, or weekends after 14.00. Post-lockdown, it has been closed to cars to give bar terraces more space and help guarantee social distancing – but it is well known that the council's intention is to ban cars from it permanently.
Five different local associations say they are 'very worried' that the traffic prohibition will continue into September, then will 'just carry on' into the winter.
“It doesn't just affect those of us who live, work or run a business on the Marqués de Campo itself – it also has a negative impact for those on the Magallanes, Carlos Sentí, Cándida Carbonell, Colón, or the Cervantes Esplanade, because there are loads of people who need to get to this part of town for many different errands and appointments, and they face an absolute odyssey trying to park,” a spokesperson for the five groups said.
“They include many elderly people living there who, if they cannot be collected by car, cannot leave their homes.”
Also, those with restricted mobility but who are not registered disabled will be unable to walk the considerable distance from the car parks on the outskirts – all of which now involve a fee - since the massive fairground area and surrounding streets in the port, which used to be free for parking, are now owned by passenger ferry companies and run for a profit.
Although the previous semipedestrianised situation 'did not suit everyone', it was at least 'workable', the associations say.
“We just want someone to listen to us,” they argue.
Mayor Vicent Grimalt has already said the public, at local election time, knew of his intentions to pedestrianise the Marqués de Campo, and that by default, this is 'what they voted for' when they put him in the hotseat.