Velez-Malaga triples blue zone parking to more than a thousand spaces

Seven years after the first blue zone was introduced in Vélez-Málaga, managed by the the Amivel association for disable people, the town hall has tripled the number of parking spaces which will increase from the current 350 to 1,106.

They will be implemented in a total of 22 streets, just over half of which will be in Torre del Mar (403) and 353 in Vélez-Málaga. In Torre del Mar they can be found in San Martín (15), San Andrés (13), Doctor Fleming (20), Avenida Toré Toré (104), El Copo (99), the promenade from Calle Vela to Calle San Andrés (42) and from the latter to Calle del Mar (17), between Calle Jábega and Calle Vela (42), on Avenida de Andalucía in front of the sub town hall office, on Calle Manuel Azuaga and the entrance to Pueblo Rocío (15), and by the Azucarera and Calle Clavel (24).

The spaces located next to Torre del Mar promenade (paseo marítimo) will only operate from June to September.

In Vélez-Málaga the new blue zone parking spaces are on Calle Fernando Vivar (25), Avenida Vivar Téllez (21), Paseo Nuevo (24), Blas Infante (35), Reñidero (24), Huerto Carrión (15), Calle Alcalde Manuel Reina (43), Calle Río Tinto (28), the bus station, Avenida de Las Naciones (51) and Villa de Madrid (28).

Businesses have been demanding an increase in parking spaces in the two towns for years. In Torre del Mar, complaints about the lack of parking spaces are common in the summer months, as many holidaymakers do not move their cars for days or even weeks on end. However, it has not been made clear what the parking alternatives will be available to people who spend weeks in Torre del Mar and are not registered on the town hall Padrón.

The residents' voucher costs five euros a week. The blue zone costs 35 cents for half an hour, 0.8 euros for an hour and 1.4 euros for two hours. It will operate from 9am to 2pm and from 5 to 9pm in summer and from 4 until 8pm in winter. The new places are initially expected to be operational by 15 June. With this expansion Amivel expects to expand the staff with between 30 and 40 workers with disabilities, compared to the 15 it has had since 2015.

The opposition Partido Popular party has criticised the government team for “not giving residents a single explanation as to when the blue zone is going to be introduced at the doors of their houses in San Martín, San Andrés, Doctor Fleming, Pueblo Rocío, Reñidero, Blas Infante or Paseo de Andalucía streets, without knowing if they will have special prices for being residents, without anything being clear.”