Guardamar Sunday market reopens, despite Local Police closure

On Sunday, October 12th, the Fogón de Guardamar market opened again after the Local Police told it to close. Mayor José Luis Sáez (PSOE) said he will send a report about the supposed choice by the activity’s promoters to reopen, defying the order to close. Sáez made it clear that this is how the City Council works.

The Local Police are not likely to stop the business from operating this Sunday, at least not at first. “We don’t want to cause any fights or violence in any way,” he said. Company executives have not answered this newspaper’s request for a comment on this issue. Yesterday, Monday, though, the Local Police officers did put the seals back on.

For a long time

Sáez says that “many years ago,” the town started asking the people in charge of the activity to make the facility’s status lawful, which was open every Sunday, “and there has been no way to achieve this.”

The owner didn’t provide enough paperwork, thus the licensing process couldn’t be finished. Finally, two months ago, when all the deadlines for complaints had passed, the City Council ordered the business to close. At first, the company did what the City Council said, but then it opened again after sending in fresh paperwork.

Municipal technicians decided that they couldn’t accept those reports because the administrative file was already finished. Then, for the last two weeks, they have been sealing it with the Local Police. But by Saturday, a lot of the seals were gone, and the esplanade, where several restaurants with terraces are located was getting ready to open this Sunday. There is about 20,000 square meters of fenced-in space in the region, which can hold dozens of stalls. And as expected from this previous action, the market promoters chose to ignore the city ordinance and open the doors.

The legal route

The mayor himself made it clear that the company might now go to court and ask for preventative measures to give them a chance to reopen a new case. This action was in reaction to the municipality’s order to close the business. The mayor of Guardamar, on the other hand, said that he doesn’t know if the corporation has asked for preventative measures to stop the closure order and the closing of the facilities. The corporation has not answered this newspaper’s request for comment, on the other hand.

“We’re not going to cause any trouble or put police at the entrances to keep them from opening. But we have put the barriers back together. “The court will decide,” declared Mayor José Luis Sáez.
For years, the El Fogón market has been one of the most popular in the Vega Baja area. It was one of the earliest markets to open to the public on Sundays, a day that is now also used by other popular markets like El Zoco in Algorfa and the Campo de Guardamar market.

The place included a lot of bars and food patios, and it sold all kinds of things at very low costs.

Its wide range of goods included antiques, used clothes, tools, and a lot of other things. However, there have been some problems when items with “confusing origin” were put up for sale, as confirmed by sources close to the Guardia Civil.

Success

The success of this activity, especially among the large number of foreign residents in the nearby residential areas, has caused traffic problems on the N-332 road for years. Customers’ cars parked on the edges of the road and pedestrians constantly walking by, which required the help of the Guardia Civil Traffic Police. Building a roundabout from the road to the future sector, which will soon have homes and businesses, helped lower the frequency of occurrences. The market has profited from this.

Sáez said that the land’s existing designation as developable—pending the development of an urban plan—”has a series of conditions that do not allow this type of flea market activity.” The mayor said that the person in charge of the flea market is also the owner of the land. “We suggested they look into getting a temporary licence,” which could be a solution if the developer agrees.

The region is in the Z0-Oliverón sector, which has more than 2,365 residences and half a million square metres. It contains proposals to create residential areas around the current pine forest and restricted military zone of Moncayo, as well as commercial areas along the highway.

Legalisations

Mayor José Luis Sáez said that the city’s move is part of the work that has been going on for 10 years, since he entered office, to make sure that economic activities that don’t have the right permits and licences are legal. He talked about how the Moncayo market had to close a year ago “because there was no way to make it legal, either through a special plan or any DIC.”

The same is true for the case against the Campo de Guardamar market. It is still open because a court has issued an injunction while the owners wait for approval of their special plan, even though it is in an area that affects the Natural Park. If the plan is not approved, the business, which has more than 500 stalls, will be permanently closed. Another example is the legalisation of a big animal feed mill that has made its operations legal by taking on, among other things, the responsibility of building a roundabout on the route that connects Campo de Guardamar with the CV-905. “The City Council has taken action with those businesses or activities that have not been made legal,” the mayor said.