Alex Trelinski
TORREVIEJA council had made a new appeal for tough police action to clear pavements of illegal street sellers ahead of the summer season.
The unlicensed hawkers, who frequently sell fake goods, often take up large spaces along the city’s main promenade between Hombre de Mar right up to the end of Avenida de los Marineros at Playa de Cura.
Areas for pedestrians are restricted as they have to weave through the pavement which on one side has bar and restaurant terraces and the sellers on the other side.
Legitimate businesses in the area have complained for years that their livelihoods are being threatened by low prices offered by the vendors.
Torrevieja’s security councillor, Federico Alarcon, says this situation is ‘reproduced daily’ on the promenade and has sent a ‘detailed’ file of photos taken in the area to the government’s sub-delegate in Alicante, Araceli Poblador.
Poblador will attend a meeting next week along with various branches of the police in Torrevieja where the council will ask for something to be done about the problem.
Alarcon wants the Policia Nacional to make spot checks on the immigration status of the illegal vendors, and posters will be erected along the promenade warning potential buyers that a local by-law exists where purchasers can be fined for buying from the hawkers.
Attempts to warn off customers came to nothing last summer due to a lack of Policia Local and Guardia Civil officers.
In 2013, Torrevieja tried a ‘strong-arm’ approach as terrace chairs and tables were hurled into the street by sellers during a stand-off with the police.
Thousands of items were seized then and burnt at a municipal site, but the sellers reappeared.
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