Several areas of Malaga wake up to protest banners criticising the lack of cleanliness outside the city centre

In a conversation with SUR on Tuesday, Miguel Jiménez, member of a neighbourhood association campaigning for the area of Miraflores de los Ángeles’, said, "We are going to fill the neighbourhood with banners.” And so it has been. Eight banners have been put up across different neighbourhoods of Malaga criticising the state of cleanliness in these areas: "city council abandons Miraflores", "dirty neighbourhoods", "dirty Malaga" and "working-class neighbourhoods neglected" are some of the slogans displayed.

These banners have been placed on bridges in Avenida Valle Inclán and Avenida de Andalucía. And the association warns that this will not be the end: "Over the next few nights more banners will appear, even in emblematic places of the city," added Jiménez. The action last Tuesday night was joined by anonymous citizens who do not belong to the association, which is currently made up of some 150 people. "There have been several dozen residents in various areas who have put them up, and we also know that people who are not part of the association have also joined the action," he explained.

"This isn’t some kind of performance - people are genuinely outraged because of the filth in our streets. Most residents of Malaga are concerned. Here, in the Miraflores area, we had no cleaning at all during the pre-fair or post-fair last year. That’s why, seeing as we’re now in mid-July and the dirt is piling up, we’re taking action. Are we going to have to wait until September for them to clean up?" This was the reaction of the representative of the residents' association covering the districts of Camino Suárez, Victoria Eugenia, La Bresca, and Miraflores de los Ángeles.

This action is part of the various initiatives being carried out by the association, following a visit to the city hall a few weeks ago. On Monday, members of the association headed out with brushes, mops and buckets to clean the area around the Miraflores de los Ángeles primary school. “Our streets are full of urine and faeces from both dogs and people. We're not going to sit back and do nothing while this filth consumes our neighbourhoods,” they declared.

The neighbourhood association 'dignity project for Miraflores de los Ángeles' took part on Wednesday morning in another protest action alongside the platform of associations and social movements, Liveable, Green, Sustainable Malaga. Around twenty people gathered mid-morning at the steps of the city hall carrying bags of rubbish. "We wanted to highlight the appalling state of neglect suffered by the city's working-class neighbourhoods," they said.

In a statement, the Malaga Ha Vesos platform called for a meeting with the city council to demand that the neighbourhoods be cleaned street by street “with water and detergent before the start of the fair”. They are also requesting an increase in cleaning staff for the city. “We want a significant boost in the number of workers at Limasan, with specific objectives set for each neighbourhood.”

And they sent a warning to the city council: “Today, we are just a selected delegation from our platform who have come here. Next week, there could be hundreds of us.”