Alex Trelinski
TRADERS at Alicante’s iconic Esplanade ‘hippie’ craft market will protest on Sunday- just 11 days before they are kicked off the site with no alternative area to go to.
Alicante council says it is ‘recovering the area for the enjoyment and recreation of residents and visitors’.
The Esplanade is the city’s most popular walkway, at almost 600 metres and running parallel to the port from Plaza Puerta del Mar to the Parque de Canalejas.
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The market was set up in 1979 with guide books describing the Esplanade as a ‘great place to stop and shop’.
Alicante council had promised to find a different location for the 60-plus stall holders but alternatives have come to nothing.
The most recent proposal to site the market in the Playa Coco area was vetoed by the Costas coastal authority.
A final option is a small road by the Melia breakwater but space is very tight with street furniture and parking spots for stall-holders to deal with.
Market traders spokesperson, Lucia Ramello, said: “Our fear is that they will offer us this and it will be another smoke bomb.”
She expressed her concern that the Melia proposal will be rejected by council technicians, leaving them without a site.
The stall-holders say they feel tricked by the council, especially since they had a concession running until 2026.
The Esplanade change was approved four years ago, and Ramello said various meetings saw the council tell traders ‘not to worry, as they would be relocated’.
She said they will carry on ‘fighting’ until the last minute and will present a petition to stop an Esplanade clearance without an alternative site being agreed.
