Guardamar El Fogón Sunday Market Closes After Operating For 30 Years Without Licence

THE municipality of Guardamar del Segura has permanently closed nan El Fogón Sunday marketplace aft it emerged that nan celebrated marketplace had been operating without a municipal licence for 3 decades.

Situated alongside nan N-332 other nan Santa Ana business estate, nan marketplace has agelong been a favourite for bargain hunters, collectors, and section families. 

Local constabulary sealed nan tract aft nan institution moving nan marketplace ignored a anterior closure bid from nan council. Mayor José Luis Sáez told nan property that authorities had attempted “for galore years” to promote nan operators to regularise nan market, but repeated requests for nan basal paperwork had gone mostly unheeded. While immoderate documents were submitted, they were incomplete and insufficient to rumor a trading licence, which led nan assembly to person to bid a closure 2 months ago. 

Although nan operators initially complied pinch nan order, they later reopened nan market, presenting caller archiving that municipal technicians saw arsenic invalid, arsenic nan lawsuit had already been closed. Police person now sealed nan 20,000-square-metre site, which hosted dozens of stalls each Sunday. 

The market’s closure has been met pinch mixed reactions. For years, El Fogón attracted visitors from crossed nan Vega Baja region, offering antiques, second-hand items, tools, and discounted goods. Yet nan marketplace had besides faced scrutiny for trading items of “unclear origin” and for causing postulation congestion on nan engaged N-332. A precocious built roundabout eased immoderate of these issues, but information concerns were still there. 

A cardinal facet preventing legalisation, Mayor Sáez explained, is nan land’s existent classification arsenic developable, reserved for early residential and commercialized development. Temporary licences were suggested, but they would person required an statement pinch nan area’s improvement agent, which ne'er came about. The tract is portion of Sector Z0-Oliverón, marked for complete 2,300 caller homes and much than 500,000 quadrate metres of mixed-use onshore adjacent nan Moncayo conifer wood and a restricted subject zone. 

The closure is portion of a wider run by nan assembly to guarantee each businesses run wrong ineligible limits. Mayor Sáez cited erstwhile enforcement actions, including nan shutdown of nan Moncayo marketplace past twelvemonth and ongoing proceedings against Campo de Guardamar market. He emphasised that nan assembly has applied nan rules to each unlicensed businesses, and those that comply, specified arsenic a section provender factory, person been capable to regularise successfully. 

The institution down El Fogón still has nan action to entreaty successful court, but arsenic of this week, nary specified petition had been submitted, leaving nan destiny of 1 of Guardamar’s astir enduring Sunday attractions much aliases little firmly closed.