Last motorhomes leave Malaga's Sacaba beach under police pressure

The last motorhome in the Sacaba settlement in Malaga left under pressure from the city council and the police early on Thursday morning.

Five years of the motorhome settlement have come to an end. What began as occasional parking area gradually transformed into a encampment of people who permanently occupied the area near the Térmica road.

Last week, the city council ordered the eviction of the campers following repeated complaints from local residents. It disguised this operation as an order to clean and clear the area.

Around 134 motorhomes were permanently parked in the area. Their owners' initial call to resist gradually lost momentum. Pressure from the Local Police, identifying and notifying the owners that remaining would result in hefty fines, did the rest.

City council sources told SUR that the area will be fenced off to prevent the possible return of motorhomes. "Pedestrian access will not be impeded," they said.

The growth in the number of motorhomes in the area over the past few years had not only strained the area's urban planning but also transformed the Sacaba landscape into a permanent, makeshift campsite, lacking the necessary sanitation and utility infrastructure. The coexistence between residents of the Sacaba area and motorhome users had become untenable in recent months.

President of the local residents' association Fernando Rueda told SUR that their protests were mainly based on unsanitary conditions caused by "the improper disposal of grey and black water in unauthorised areas, the saturation of parking areas and access roads that hampered residents' daily lives and the constant noise disturbances stemming from everyday life in such a large settlement, such as the use of electric generators and outdoor gatherings".

To address this dispute, the city council opted for an indirect but effective approach to the eviction, justifying the official order as necessary to carry out cleaning and clearing work on the land. Although some of the permanent motorhome owners threatened organised resistance in the first few days, the city's strategy ultimately prevailed thanks to the role of the Local Police.

The patrols proceeded to identify the residents of the settlement and formally notify them that remaining there would result in substantial fines. Faced with the prospect of severe coercive fines and the practical impossibility of remaining during the land preparation work, the group gradually left the site.

The shutting down of the settlement has not eliminated the problem of mass overnight stays of campervans within the municipality. Forced to leave, the motorhome owners have spread out across various locations and coastal areas in search of new places to settle, such Peñón del Cuervo and the Guadalmar district.

Guadalmar residents have already contacted district councillor Borja Vivas to express their firm opposition to the concentration of motorhomes, while publicly criticising the city council's "excessive passivity" in addressing and resolving this issue at its root.

The eviction highlights a long-standing deficiency in Malaga, which currently lacks an official campsite properly equipped for this type of tourism.

The urban planning department's latest meeting addressed this infrastructural gap. Several proposed locations for the development of a regulated campsite were analysed, with the Guadalmar area being among the top options.

The city council's objective is to open the door to private initiative, allowing an investor to develop and build a modern campsite equipped with all kinds of services, such as electrical hook-ups, waste disposal areas and communal spaces, thereby regulating this activity and preventing future uncontrolled settlements.

In the meantime, the urban planning department is already working on deterrent measures and will install a fence to enclose Sacaba.

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