What was set to become one of Manilva’s great green lungs seems to have finally taken a completely different path. Over the last few years, the Llano Negro in Nueva Manilva has been presented by various municipal officials as an ambitious urban transformation project. The proposal included large green areas, footpaths, sports areas, children’s play areas, outdoor fitness areas and hundreds of trees, to create a new space for community life and leisure for all residents.
All these announcements, news items, photos and projects that we have been told about in recent years now seem to amount to a fill of crushed stone and scrub clearance so that vehicles can park, because of a lack of parking spaces or, rather, because of having a public car park that is closed to the public and whose requirements for parking inside are not known with any precision.
This Monday, the Town Hall announced a comprehensive operation at the Llano Negro based on cleaning, scrub clearance, removal of waste, levelling of the ground with crushed stone and the creation of around 500 parking spaces. This new operation contradicts the roadmap presented in recent years to transform this part of the town: another project that remains mere publicity and ends up in a drawer.
Two multimillion announcements, one project and the same result: no project and no millions.
The first public presentation took place in October 2023. At that time, the mayor, José Manuel Fernández, and councillor Agustín Vargas announced the creation of a large «green lung» of 11,834 square metres, funded with 750,000 euros from the Diputación Provincial de Málaga. The announcements were made through the Town Hall’s official channels.
The project included wooded areas, shaded spaces, pedestrian paths, leisure areas, street furniture and outdoor fitness equipment intended to improve residents’ quality of life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf5TvVmTpr4
Six months later, in April 2024, the Town Hall presented the project again. This time the budget had risen to nearly 900,000 euros and new infrastructure was added, such as sports courts, children’s play areas, footpaths, a new road for vehicles and a parking area of around 200 spaces.
In addition, the governing team itself stated that work would begin that same year.
https://youtu.be/K3VZ361Xa9s?si=Q58pILEyrNe6EhnP
In the end, the area is tidied up so that vehicles can park
According to the information released by the Town Hall about the operation now presented, the work carried out will make it possible to provide around 500 parking spaces to meet the demand during the summer and at large events.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6bVKgZ-0yw
The fact is that, compared with the project presented in 2024, the parking area appeared as a complementary element within a peri-urban green park of more than 11,000 square metres, with an initial capacity of no more than 200 parking spaces.
Where is the green lung and where are the millions?
The question any resident might ask is a simple one: what has happened to the large peri-urban park that was announced to us?
What is now being «sold to us» as good news is the cleaning of the plot and its surroundings so that it can be used as a car park, which is very different from what we have been told over the past years.
The contradiction within the original project is unprecedented: an action announced as a great green lung for Manilva has become, at least for now, one of the largest parking areas in the municipality.
